


The green bottle

by Gaia_bing



Series: The green bottle [1]
Category: Nagron - Fandom, Spartacus Series (TV), Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Spartacus: Vengeance, Spartacus: War of the Damned
Genre: Alternate Universe - Genie/Djinn, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Magic, Wishes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-13
Updated: 2013-08-22
Packaged: 2017-12-20 02:49:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaia_bing/pseuds/Gaia_bing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agron's life is forever changed when he purchases a mysterious bottle at a flea market and while he had counted on the bottle to be of some value, he hadn't counted on the genie that was inside to be worth a lot more. A slash/mystical story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Agron's flea market adventure

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back once again with a new magical story! Let's see what Agron has found while hunting for some antique goodies and how his life will be forever changed because of it. :)

It had been a gloomy morning, just like a lot of them these days, when Agron and Spartacus found themselves once again in a rural place to try and score some goodies. While Agron was studying Ancient History in college, he had taken a job as an assistant to Spartacus in his antiques restoring business. While the both of them shared a lot in common, discovering, repairing and bringing ancient things back to life were both of their passion and they absolutely loved scurrying garage sales, beaches, auctions, even junkyards and flea markets just like today to see what kind of old stuff they could get their hands on and learn of their history. Sure, from time to time their searches would only end up in finding junk worthy of the trash that they had been found in, but sometimes a pot of gold would appear beneath it all and the treasures they would sometimes find made all the excursions worth it. Spartacus' business consisted of reselling some of the stuff they would restore like vintage vehicles, old jewelry and sometimes even ancient documents they would find to interested clients and collectors and this would help fund their antiques searching treks from town to town and even from state to state.   
  
But, while they did make money on some of their stuff, what they'd consider most valuable in their eyes they would keep and add to an ever growing collection. Because you see, Spartacus' ultimate dream was to open a museum to showcase all the things he had found over the years so that he could share them and their different stories with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, opening a museum demanded a lot of money and while his business was lucrative, Spartacus was only earning enough to pay Agron for his help and their different trips. So really, the museum project had a long way to go before it could come to fruition. And it wasn't that Spartacus hadn't tried to get some funding, on the contrary, he had tried countless times to present his project to countless people who he knew had the necessary funds to help him, but he was always met with a shake of the head and even sometimes a foot in the ass. But still, Spartacus hadn't given up and the day after their current flea market adventure, he had an appointment with a Mr. Crassus, an insurance businessman, who had heard about his project and wanted to learn more.  
  
"Alright, if we split in two, I think we'll be able to cover more ground and find something interesting." said Spartacus to Agron as he adjusted his backpack over his shoulder. He looked at his watch and added: "So, I'll take the left alleys, you'll take the right ones. We'll meet here in about two hours. Okay?"  
  
"Got it." replied Agron as he took the money Spartacus was waving at him and went on his way. He walked through the alleys and checked out each vendors' merchandise. Shoes and clothes: didn't need them, vinyls: got enough of those already, stamps: hmm, a couple of those seemed nice.   
  
And so by the end of at the fourth alley he had checked out, besides a couple of old stamps and baseball cards, Agron hadn't really gotten lucky. What he was looking for was antiques and what he was finding was just old junk. As he went by the fifth alley, a small table in the corner caught his eye.  
  
A young, blonde-haired woman was sitting behind the table where a slew of silverware was laying on top of it. Plates, jars, utensils, pots and bottles were straying about, begging to be bought at a low low price. _Hmm_ , Agron thought as he looked at what the lady was offering, _maybe I'll score something nice today after all_. While looking at a wooden plate that the woman had said was from the early 1900's, something caught his attention in the far corner of the table.   
  
Between a pack of spoons and knives stood a lone green bottle. It had a small, but large body along with a long and sleek neck, looking like one of those bottles you would find in a chemistry class, but less practical and more beautiful. A roll of what looked like papyrus was rolled around the bottle, attached to it by a old worn string. Agron took the bottle in his hands, fascinated.  
  
"What is this thing?" he asked the lady at the table, curious about where she had gotten such an odd object.  
  
"Got if a couple of years ago from my grandfather in inheritance. He said it was made in Syria, about 2000 years ago. The paper around it has some scriptures on it, I never could find anybody to transcribe it, probably some dead language from around there." the woman said.  
  
"How much?" Agron asked, wanting to take this particular object home more than anything else in the world for some strange reason. The lady looked at him and smiled.  
  
"Well, you seem like a good man, so I'll make you a deal: normally I'd sell it for 100 bucks, but for you, I'll let it go for only 20." the woman said, making her first and final offer.  
  
"Sold!" Agron replied, grabbing a bill from his pocket and taking the mysterious bottle with him.  
  
"Thank you." the lady took the money and added as Agron went on his way: "I'm sure you'll make good use of this particular item."  
  
Agron didn't really pay attention to the lady's last comment because he was too focused on his purchase. What a deal he had just made! An antique 2000 year-old bottle for only twenty bucks, this would look great in their museum!

  
  
*************

  
And so two hours later, Agron and Spartacus met at the particular spot they had agreed on and compared their findings. Spartacus, with some luck, had found some old car parts that he needed to complete a vintage car he was remodeling for a client and had also scored some minor goodies like an old doll and old postcards. When Agron showed him the green bottle and explained what it was: Spartacus' eyes went wide.  
  
"Dude! Where did you get something like that?!" he asked, excited at his friend's find.  
  
"It was from a woman's table over there." Agron said as he pointed to the direction where he had bought his bottle.  
  
"Hell, if you can score something like that for only twenty dollars, then maybe if we go back we can get other good stuff!" Spartacus said as he and Agron made their way towards the woman's table.   
  
But, as they approached the location to where Agron had made his purchase, they were shocked to find that the table along with the lady were both gone.   
  
"Man, are you sure she was here?" asked a little disappointed Spartacus to a hugely confused Agron who was looking around to see where the kiosk had gone.  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure! I mean, I was here just two hours ago, she couldn't have just disappeared out of thin air!" Agron replied, scratching his head at what was going on. He made his way to a nearby table where a man was selling old clothes and asked him, while pointing in the direction the table where he had found his green bottle was supposed to be: "Excuse me, do you know where the lady that was right over there went?"   
  
The man looked at him as if he was crazy and responded: "I'm sorry sir, but that slot has been empty for months and months. Nobody has set up shop there for a long time as far as I can remember."  
  
Agron now was even more confused. "But that's impossible! I was just here two hours ago and bought this!" he said, showing the man the green bottle he had supposedly bought nearby.  
  
"Well, I'm sorry, but if there had been somebody there I would have known, believe me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have costumers to attend to." the man finished, pointing at the line of waiting people that had begun to form behind Agron.   
  
Agron went back to Spartacus with complete confusion on his face and was now wondering if he had indeed gone completely crazy.   
  
"And?" Spartacus asked his friend, awaiting news of what was going on.   
  
"And apparently nobody's been there for months. But that's not possible, I'm 100% that I bought that thing over there!" he said, pointing in the direction that the table had been previously set up.   
  
"Look, just forget about it man. I think we've done enough antiques hunting for today. Why don't we just go back home and I'll buy you lunch?" Spartacus replied, putting his hand on Agron's shoulder and began walking with him towards the market's exit.  
  
"Okay. At least we still managed to get some good stuff today." Agron said, once again looking at the direction he was sure the lady had been. Had he made the whole thing up? He was so sure she had been right there! _Oh well._ Agron thought as they made their way out of the shop and into Spartacus's car and for the rest of the day, Agron didn't think about what had happened.  
  
 *************  
  
It was in the evening that Agron's mind went once again on what had happened that morning and his new purchase when he returned from classes and went to his garage/workshop. As he opened the door, he passed by a bookshelf where his most precious finds were exposed; things that he had found or purchased over the years that he had grown too fond of to resell and was waiting for the museum to open to be able to show them to the rest of the world. Agron sighed as he approached the piece of furniture and looked at the top shelf where an old frame with a picture of a smiling man was resting on. He grabbed the picture and smiled wistfully. _For you, I'm doing it all for you. If you only knew._ Agron thought as he put the picture back in the bookshelf and went to his worktable.   
  
"All right my little beauty, let's see what you're made of. Even though your previous owner seems to have never existed, but whatever." he said to the bottle that he had put on his table when he had come home that afternoon. He grabbed the object and began to inspect it closer, trying to see if it needed any repairs. It seemed fine, all things considered. Only he couldn't see inside the bottle because there seems to be an opaque liquid or something that was blocking the view. On top of the bottle was a green glass cap. Agron tried to pull the cap off to see the inside of the bottle but as much as he pulled, he couldn't get it to open. After a few tries and not wanting to break the bottle, he put it back on the table and scratched his head. What in the hell was going on with that thing?  
  
 _Hmm, maybe I'll just forget about opening it. Let's see that paper thingy instead_. Agron said to himself as delicately undid the old string and pulled the paper off from around the mysterious thing. He began to check out its inscriptions. It looked like some old Arabic to him, which was perfect because he had studied Arabic and other old languages as a pastime as a youngster.  
  
 _Let's see here_. Agron began to read out loud: as he held the bottle in one hand and the paper in the other:   
  
_"This bottle I am now the owner of,_  
 _The spirit inside I am now the master of,_  
 _Come out now and serve me,_  
 _My three wishes only you can grant me!"_  
  
As soon as he said the last word, the lights in his garage began to flicker on and off. What's going on? Agron thought to himself but he didn't have time to check out what was wrong with his lighting because the bottle in his hand began to shake violently, as if it had a mind of its own. "What the fuck!?" Agron cried out loud as he let go of the bottle and watched it roll on the ground. Whatever was inside started to glow intensely and the bottle started to spin around and around on itself. Scared out of his mind, Agron hid behind his worktable and watched as the bottle stopped spinning and suddenly, the cap he had tried so hard to open suddenly came off the bottle.

Too spooked to do anything, Agron stayed in place as he saw green smoke beginning to seep out of the bottle and around the garage. Agron coughed out loud and tried to fan the smoke with his hand, but to no avail; it still came pouring out. Suddenly, the smoke changed direction and instead of coming upwards and into the air, it seemed to concentrate in a particular point, as if it was trying to form something. Agron rose his body upwards as he came out of his hiding place and saw with complete astonishment as the smoke took the form of a human being and soon, features began to materialize: Long, sleek fingers; long, dark hair; bright, brown eyes and then, before Agron, what had previously been green smoke inside a green bottle was now an handsome-looking young man, with a marvelous smile and twin marvelous bracelets bracing his arms. And has he looked at Agron, his smile widened even more.  
  
"Hello, you must be my new master. I'm here to grant you three wishes. What will it be?"   
  
And Agron's response? To scream like a little girl.


	2. A ghost, a demon and a freebie? Oh my!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agron tries to come to terms with what just happened (and not really succeeding) while Nasir tries to make him understand who (or what) he really is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story continues! Let's see how Agron reacts to a man appearing out of thin air in his garage with the promise of wishes and the apparent gift of magic. Read and review, means the world to me. :)

Now if you had asked him, Agron wasn't a closed-minded type of guy: he did believe that there might be some things in life that could happen that we couldn't explain and he believed that humans weren't alone in the universe. But, in all of the things he believed in, one of those things certainly wasn't magic. He had seen enough TV shows and documentaries about magic tricks and all that ballyhoo to know that it was all just smoke and mirrors and none of it was real at all. So you should expect him to react the way that he did when a human being had seemingly materialized out of thin air (or should I say right of thin smoke) right in front of him. And no, he still wasn't done screaming.  
  
The man that had somehow come out of the bottle was now crossing his arms and tapping his foot, waiting for his new master to stop screaming his lungs out. He stuck his finger in his ear in irritation and said: "You know, for a large man like you, it's surprising how high your voice can get."  
  
Agron stopped screaming and caught his breath, looking at the man in front of him. What...what in the world did just happen? This was some trick right? Somehow this guy, this half-naked, very attractive guy mind you (like he would ever say *that* out loud) had set up the bottle to act the way it did so he could make his entrance unnoticed and... attack and rob him! Oh god!  
  
Reaching behind him, slowly so that his would-be attacker wouldn't notice him, he grabbed a nearby wrench from his toolbox and said to the man before him: "Listen... buddy, I don't know what you want from me...but I'm just a student so...I don't have a lot..." He suddenly brandished his newly-found weapon in front of him and cried out: "Ahah! Try to rob me now if you can! I've got a wench!"  
   
The man leaned his head sideways and replied: "I'm not here to rob you." He was looking at Agron like *he* was the one who was strange, not himself. He added: "Like I said before, I'm here to..." he couldn't finish his sentence when Agron, his sturdy wench in hand, suddenly flew at him to try and strike him. He didn't have the time to move and would have been the victim of a whack of steel on the head courtesy of Agron...if Agron hadn't passed right through the man in his attempted attack and found himself falling on the floor.  
  
Agron turned around and looked at the man who was now behind him, looking at his with mirth on his face. What the hell had just happened just now? One moment he was in front of the other man, ready to strike and he was about to when...the wench and his body hadn't made contact with anything solid and had ended sprawled on the ground, with the man on the other side of him, looking at him funny. Had he literarily passed through the guy? _But that was impossible_ , he thought as he made his way to his knees and stood back up, still with his wench in hand just in case. He looked at the other man: he seemed to be a normal-looking human being: with two arms, two feet, one head and one hell of an ass...  
  
 _Hey hey hey_...Agron's mind brought him back on track. So, if he looked like any other person, then why couldn't he whack him with his wench and had passed right through him like he was made of smoke? Wait a minute, like made of smoke? Did that mean that he was in fact face to face with a...  
  
"AAAHHH!! A GHOST!!!" Agron suddenly screamed out loud once again and hurled his way out of his garage and into the house that he was renting. The "ghost" closed his eyes, took a deep breath and pinched his nose, getting a little bit annoyed by Agron's attitude.

*****************

Agron ran through the house, trying to get to his bedroom as fast as he could. When he got there, he swiftly locked the door and picked up his cell phone. He was about to press 9, about to call the police, when his mind began to work and he took his index finger off the button. What exactly was he planning on saying to the operator? _"Hey, please send help. I'm being haunted by a ghost in my house and I just passed right through him just now!_ "? The operator wouldn't send a cop car, he or she would send a ambulance to take him to the loony bin! Maybe they should do it though, intern him that is. With what happened this morning and just now, maybe he was in fact going crazy...  
  
 _"So, are you done freaking out now?"_  
  
Agron yelped, dropping his cell phone on his bed and looked up. The man that had been in his garage was now standing in his bedroom, in front of him, with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. But that was impossible, he had just locked his bedroom door and when he looked at it again, he realized that it was still locked! Scared out of his mind and with nothing to defend himself with, Agron thought of the only logical thing that he could do...and that was standing up and folding his arms in the shape of a cross.  
  
"The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!" he said over and over again, trying to scare whatever demon or ghost was standing in front of him away. If it had worked in "The Excorcist", it had to work in real life, right?  
  
"What exactly do are you trying to do here?" said the "apparition", looking unimpressed at Agron's attempt to send him away.  
  
"What does it look like, I'm trying to get rid of you, demon! Get out of my house!" Agron replied out loud, waving his arms to send the apparent ghost away.  
  
"Sorry to disappoint you but, you're not going to get rid of me that easily." the "demon" responded, looking more and more annoyed as the seconds ticked by.  
  
At the sound of that, Agreon unfolded his arms and looked dejectedly at the man in front of him. "Look, whatever "unfinished business" you have to do here or whatever possession you need to do, just do it now, okay? Just be quick about it, please." he conceited, closing his eyes and extending his arms in the air, awaiting his probable dark and demonic fate.  
  
After waiting for a minute or so and sensing that nothing was happening, Agron dared to crack open an eye and saw that the man hadn't moved a muscle from where he had stood a moment ago and was looking at him with the same exasperated look on his face that he had just a minute earlier.  
  
"Are you done playing around now?" the man said, with narrowed eyes.  
  
"What do you mean me playing around, it's *you* that's playing around, Mr. Puff-of-smoke-who-appears-out-of-nowhere-and-goes-right-through-people, I mean really, don't you have enough decency to be solid enough to be whacked on the head and...and..." Agron stammered, his heart beating a hundred of miles per hour, scared out of his mind. He swallowed the lump that had appeared inside of his throat and finally asked: "Who are you? What do you want from me?"  
  
The man finally smiled and replied: "If you just had let me finish back there, I would have told you why I'm here." With a snap of his fingers, the man made the green bottle that Agron had left in the garage along with the piece of paper that Agron had read appear right on top of Agron's bed, much to the other man's complete astonishment. _Now I'm *really* going crazy_ , he thought. The man pointed at both objects on the bed and said: "The paper, when you read it, it made you my new master. This bottle right here is where I come from and where I've been living for the past two-thousand years. To make it real simple for you: I'm a genie and I'm here to grant you three wishes." the man finished, putting his hands on his hips, seemingly happy to have finally explained himself.  
  
Agron looked at the supposed "genie" with a bit of apprehension and decided to let his mind open up a bit at the whole thing. He asked: "Okay..."Genie"...do you have a name?"  
  
The other man replied with a smile and a bow: "My name's Nasir, at you service."  
  
Agron then continued: "Okay...Nasir...if you're really a genie, like you said you are, prove it."  
  
Nasir looked suspiciously at Agron for a second, then replied: "Alright, since you want some proof, I'll give it to you. Consider this a freebie. Since it's almost time for dinner, what do you want to eat? Ask for anything that you want and I'll give it to you."  
  
Agron thought really hard. If he was going to test this guy, he was going to test him good. _Oohh_ , he thought with a smile spreading on his face, _he just thought of something good_. If the other man could really give him whatever he wanted for dinner, Agron was going to make it a doozie.  
  
Turning towards the so-called genie, Agron said: "Alright, I want a BLT Cheezeburger from Josys', with their "Old-Time Crispy French Fries"."  
  
Nasir frowned at the suggestion and asked: "Josys'? But didn't that place close down like twenty years ago?"  
  
Agron smiled, crossed his arms over his chest and said: "That's right. I used to go there with my family to eat when I was ten years old and they were my favorite junk food when I was a kid and I've suddenly got the munchies for it. So, Mr. Genie, if you're so mighty and powerful, let's see if you can actually give me anything that I want. If you can, then maybe I'll start to believe what you're telling me."  
  
Nasir shrugged his shoulders and replied: "Alright, a BLT Cheezeburger and "Old-Time Crispy French Fries" from Josys', coming right up." And with that, his eyes went completely white for an instant, the golden bracelets on his arms seemed to glow and with another snap of Nasir's fingers, before Agron appeared a tray with exactly what he had ordered, complete with a grey and black carry-on box with the Josys' logo on it, just like Agron remembered seeing as a child.  
  
"Well...would you look at that, Josys' stuff, just like twenty years ago." Agron said, dumfounded, sitting on his bed in a slump. Maybe this Nasir guy really was a genie and did really have magic.  
  
Nasir looked at Agron with a sympathetic smile and sat next to him. "Look, I know it's a bit hard to comprehend and it may take some time to really get used to, but with what you just saw, are you starting to believe me now?" he asked Agron.  
  
Agron turned towards Nasir and, finally making up his mind, he replied with a smile: "So, how does it work?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, Nasir's wishes system is explained and the first wish is made! What will it be?


	3. The meeting and the first wish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agron and Spartacus have their meeting with Mr. Crassus. Will everything go well for them? And what will Agron's first wish be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of updates guys! :/ Been quite busy with work, daily life plus a week-long vacation at Virginia Beach (which was awesome btw.:D), so I had a lot of my plate these past few weeks, but I'm back now! And I'll hopefully update as much as I can, I promise. Hope you enjoy this chapter. :)

So now Agron had begun to plow through his requested meal, the cheeseburger in his hands with the tray of fries in his lap. Nasir sat next to him with an amused look upon his face, finding his new master's way of gorging himself handful after handful of greasy food to be quite funny.   
  
After munching on a pickle from the burger and licking his fingers, Agron turned to Nasir and with an apologetic look and an offered pack of fries, asked him: "Oh, sorry, where are my manners? Are you hungry? Do you want some of my fries? They're good!"  
  
With a raised hand, Nasir politely responded: "No thank you. I'm not hungry. And even if I were, I couldn't eat those."  
  
Agron raised an eyebrow: "And why is that?" he couldn't help but ask. He got his response when Nasir took his already raised hand and went to pick up a French Fries. Well, he would have been able to pick one if his hand hadn't passed through the grey and black tray like it was made of smoke and with a sad smile, Nasir quickly retreated his hand away and put it back in his lap.  
  
"That's why." Nasir said with a sigh.  
  
"Oh. So you can't touch anything? You can't eat? Where do you sleep? What do you do if you... you know, have to go?" Agron asked in a hurried pace, wanting to know as much information about Nasir as he could.  
  
"Woah, woah, woah! One question at a time, please?" Nasir replied, trying to calm his new friend down.  
  
"Okay so, can you touch anything, like at all?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"What do you do when you're hungry?"  
  
"Nothing, I'm never hungry."  
  
"And where do you sleep?"  
  
"'Been sleeping in my bottle ever since I became a genie, so for a long time, it's actually quite comfortable in there, if you ask me. Anything else?" Nasir asked, crossing his arms.  
  
Agron thought for a second and remembered the first question he had asked earlier:   
"Oh yeah! How does this wish thing works? Any rules I should be aware of?"  
  
Nasir smiled and replied: "That one's easy." he said and with a gesture of the hand made the green bottle float onto Agron's lap. "All you have to do when you want to make a wish is hold the bottle, start by saying "I wish..." and make your demand. It only works that way, I cannot grant you anything unless the bottle is in your hand and you start your wish with these two words. As for rules: I can grant you any desires that you might want except three things: I cannot kill anyone, I cannot bring anyone back from the dead and I cannot make someone fall in love with someone else." Nasir explained. Agron looked at him for a moment with a scowl and said:  
  
"How very "Aladdin"-ish of you."  
  
"Hey, don't get mad at me about those rules, they're just the limits of what my magic can do. And believe me, I know these kind of wishes don't work, I had enough masters try it out and nothing has ever happened when they did those kind of demands." Nasir replied.  
  
"And all I get is three wishes, right? I can't ask for unlimited wishes, right?" Agron concluded, looking at him with raised eyebrows.  
  
"Nope, sorry, three wishes is all you get so I'd be thinking long and hard about what I'd wish for if I were you." Nasir replied, crossing his arms and legs on the bed.  
  
"Well okay, but the wish thinking and making is gonna have to wait until tomorrow because," Agron looked at the clock on his night-stand and continued while trying to hide a yawn: "all these adventures got me pretty beat and since I have a meeting with my friend Spartacus and Mr. Crassus tomorrow morning about a museum project we want to open, I've really got to get some sleep." Agron then stood up to go to his bathroom to prepare for bed when he turned around and look at Nasir once more. "Um, are you sure you want to sleep in your bottle tonight? I got a futon downstairs. It might not as comfy as you teeny-tiny receptacle over there, but it's still a good way to sleep." Agron proposed, wanting to accommodate Nasir as much as possible. Even though they had only just met and Agron still couldn't completely wrap his head around the idea that the man in front of him could grant wishes and lived inside a bottle, for some reason he had grown to like him in the short time that they'd talked and he wanted to be a good host to his new friend.  
  
"Oh, it's okay, but thank you for the offer anyway." Nasir replied with a smile. He got up from Agron's bed and in his master's hands, the green bottle opened up all by itself. "Well, goodnight. See you in the morning!" Nasir finished and just like when he had first came out, Nasir went back inside the green bottle in a puff of smoke and the cork closed on its own, leaving Agron alone with his thoughts about everything that had happened on this very busy and quite unbelievable day.  
  
 ***********  
  
After having drifted off to sleep thanks to a mug of warm milk after no being able to doze off on his own because of his never ending thoughts, Agron was woken up at 7 o'clock the next morning by a loud buzzing sound. Discovering that it was his cell phone that was making so much noise, he picked up the object of his annoyance and in his still sleepy voice, all he could get out was a mumbled "What?"  
  
"Dude, I'm on my way to your place, so come on and get up! I've got breakfast! And coffee!" said a seemingly enthusiastic Spartacus from the other end of the line.  
  
"Alright, alright, just give me two minutes and I'll be downstairs, geez!" responded Agron while sitting up and stretching away the tiredness from his body. Remembering everything that had happened the day before, Agron reached over to his nightstand and took the green bottle into his hands. Could he really wish for everything he had ever wanted? And what did he wanted to wish for in the first place? This would take some time to think about...  
  
"Good morning!"  
  
"GAH!" a startled Agron screamed out when he noticed a smiling Nasir looking at him from the foot of his bed, his arms crossed across his chest. "Will you stop startling me like that?!" he added, putting the bottle back on his nightstand and getting up from his bed. "Look, Spartacus is coming here for breakfast before our meeting with Mr. Crassus." Agron said, trying to find a nice looking pair of pants to wear for said meeting.   
  
"Ooohh! New people! I wanna meet him!" Nasir exclaimed, clapping his hands excitedly at the thoughts of meeting more people besides his new master after being alone for so long.  
  
Agron whipped around at Nasir's excitement and pointed a warning finger at him. "Oh no you don't!" he exclaimed, "If you meet him, looking like something that came out of "Arabian Nights" or something, he's going to have some questions. Plus, with this." Agron walked over to the genie and to emphasize his point, waved his hand through Nasir's chest like there was nothing but air in front of him. "Like I said, with this little complication right here, I think he's going to be at least as freaked out as I was yesterday, maybe even more. So, if I were you, I'd get my ass back in that bottle and play nice until I get back from our meeting, you got me?" he added, pointing to the bottle on the nightstand.  
  
"Alright, I get it. No need to get your panties, or should I say boxers, in a bunch." Nasir said with a sigh, but with a growing smirk. Agron then suddenly realized he was wearing nothing but said pair of boxers and suddenly feeling a bit prude (and this wasn't in his traits, believe me), he tried to cover himself up as best as he could with his hands, making Nasir laugh at Agron's spectacle.  
  
"Would you just go, please?!" an impatient Agron asked, feeling a slight blush coming over his cheeks at his state of undress in front of this attractive, although a bit annoying, man.  
  
"Okay, okay, got it. By the way, nice ass." Nasir said winking and with a snap of the finger, he disappeared. Agron felt the unexpected blush grow even bigger upon his face and the air in the room got a little bit hotter for some reason. Did Nasir just flirt with him just now, or was it just a joke at his expense because of how he was dressed? Probably a joke, Agron thought as he finally found some pants that looked good enough to wear. No way that a genie that he had just met the day before was checking him out and finding him attractive, right? Right. Agron was lost in his thoughts when he suddenly heard a insistent knock from his front door. Oh shit, Spartacus! Agron put on the first nice-looking shirt that he could find and raced downstairs to open the door for his best friend.  
  
It was an impatient and nervous-looking Spartacus that he found at said door. "Dude, what were you doing!? I've been waiting here for ten minutes with everything in my hands. Now come on, eat up, and your coffee is getting cold, by the way." Spartacus said as he walked past Agron and into the house. He set up the breakfast tray he had brought for Agron on the kitchen table and sat down to eat his own meal.   
  
Agron sat down opposite his best friend at the table and began to devour the muffin and drink the lukewarm coffee Spartacus had brought him. "Sorry, dude, I was a bit...preoccupied." he said, trying to explain what was going on, but not wanting to get into much details because Spartacus wouldn't believe the whole story.  
  
""Preoccupied", heh? Did you have some company last night? What's his name?" Spartacus couldn't help but ask with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.   
  
"Well, huh..." Agron never got to finish his sentence because out of the living room came the voice that Agron specifically didn't want to hear at that particular moment.  
  
 _"Agron? Are you alright?"_  
  
Oh crap! It was Nasir! What the hell was he doing? Didn't he ask him to stay put and *not* show up when he was with Spartacus? How was he going to explain the presence of a half-naked man in his house who couldn't touch anything ?  
  
Spartacus' grin grew even larger at the sound of the incoming voice. "And he's still here?! Well, looks like I might get to see this dude who's gotten you so "preoccupied" after all, hmm?" And with that, Spartacus put down his cup of coffee and stood up from the kitchen table, ready to meet the stranger that had made his presence known.  
  
"No please, Spartacus, you don't understand. It's not what it looks like!" Agron tried to stop his best friend to go through the living room by tugging at his arm. But to no avail, because just as he was about to successfully get his best friend back into the kitchen...  
  
"What's going on?" asked a walking-in Nasir, rubbing his eyes and yawning as if he had just gotten out of bed. Agron should have been pissed at Nasir for refusing to listen to him and come downstairs despite the complications he could encounter by meeting Spartacus, he should have, but his feelings of anger didn't show up at that moment, because instead a feeling of stupefaction came rushing through him. Because somehow, Nasir wasn't looking like someone coming right out of some Arabian fairy-tale with leather pants and a bare chest anymore, he now was clad with a regular looking t-shirt and some washed-out jeans with his hair tied up in a bun, as if he was some normal guy that you could find on the street and not from a magical bottle. Agron thought Nasir had looked attractive before in his genie get-up, but in normal street-wear...damn!  His reverie and his slacked jaw were quickly awakened by Spartacus going over to Nasir and asking him with a smirk: "Well, well, well... and who might you be?"   
  
Quickly and before Spartacus could have the chance to try and graze Nasir and touch nothing but air, Agron came between the two of them and replied: "Well, since you leave me no choice, Spartacus, this is Nasir. Nasir, this is Spartacus."  
  
"And Nasir is..." asked a still curious Spartacus.  
  
Opening and closing his mouth a couple of times and not knowing what to say, Nasir took over and replied: "I'm a friend of Agron, from the University." Agron caught the look Nasir was giving him and continued:  
  
"That's right! He's an exchange student from Syria and he landed here a couple of days ago..."  
  
"...And since I didn't have anywhere to stay and hotel rates can be crazy in this country. Agron very gratefully offered me a room in his house." Nasir finished, hoping Spartacus was satisfied with this answer. And from the look Spartacus was giving him and Agron, this explanation looked to be enough to abate his curiosity, at least for now.   
  
"Alright, well, it's very nice to meet you Nasir. Any of Agron's friend is also my friend." Spartacus said with a smile and an extended hand, wanting to properly greet his new pal. Agron, sensing Nasir's nervousness at what to do, quickly intervened and tried to push Spartacus through the front door, pointing at his watch and saying:  
  
"Hey! Don't we have an important meeting to go to? Like, right now?"   
  
"Yeah, yeah, geez, but we still got a half-hour to go, so stop pushing me, will you?" Spartacus replied, stopping Agron by planting his feet on the floor.   
  
From over Spartacus' shoulder, Agron mouthed to Nasir: _You owe me one._  
  
To which Nasir mouthed back: _I know._  
  
Nasir looked between Agron and Spartacus as they readjusted themselves near the front door and as they turned around to face him, he asked: "So, Agron told me that this meeting was to open up a museum, is that correct?"  
  
Spartacus responded with crossed fingers: "Yeah, it is. We've been trying to get some funding to open it up for the past few years, but we've always gone home empty-handed. But hopefully this meeting will be it!"   
  
Agron nodded along his best friend and added: "Yeah, this guy seemed interested enough. I'm sure that when we get out of his office, it'll be with some positive news for a change."  
  
 ***********  
  
"Umm, well boys, looks like I might have some bad news for you unfortunately."  
  
An hour after Spartacus and Nasir's near disastrous meeting, Agron and his best friend were now inside Mr. Marc Crassus' huge office, where the insurance mogul sat opposite them in his huge leather chair, a cigar in one hand, their portfolio in another, carefully studying their funding submission. His son and vice-president, a thin-looking boy named Tiberius, was standing next to his father, looking at another bunch of files and nodding along to whatever Mr. Crassus had to say, just like the yes-man he had been raised to become was supposed to do. What had started as a hopeful meeting with the mogul looking more open to Spartacus and Agron's idea than most of the other big shots that they had tried to convince in the past, soon started to crumble when the older man took a look at their file and started to talk numbers and results, particularly, at how exactly this little adventure of theirs could be beneficial for him in terms of money. When Spartacus had tried to explain that their museum was mostly to show to the world the particular objects that they had found or purchased over the years and tell their stories and wasn't really a lucrative-seeking venture, the smile that had adorned the mogul's face ever since they had entered his office turned into a frown. He put their portfolio back down on his mahogany-made desk, adjusted the glasses on the tip of his nose and looked at the pair seriously.  
  
"Look, fellas, I'm all for helping others and all that stuff, hell I've invested in many different charities over the years, you can check, I truly did! But let's be serious here boys, I'm in the money-making business and if this is just a way to have a room somewhere to expose a pile a junk for everybody to see and there's no way to make some profit out of it except for a couple of bucks here and there from tickets sales, then I'm sorry but I'm not really that interested." Mr. Crassus concluded, putting both of his hands on his desk and leaning against it with a definitive look upon his face.   
  
"But Sir, if you could just reconsider for a moment and see that..." Spartacus tried to argue, but Mr. Crassus' raised hand stopped him mid-sentence and the other man exclaimed in a raised voice:   
  
"And I said I'm not interested! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some other people to see and more money to make, so Tiberius, if you could please escort these two gentlemen out of my office, that will be all, thank you." And so with a nod to his son and with the scrawny younger man almost kicking them out of the office, Spartacus and Agron were now sitting on the sidewalk, their heads in their hands, with another failure to add to their resume.  
  
Agron was the first of the pair to raise his head and patted his friend on the back, trying to reassure hum despite his own feelings of hopelessness. He encouragingly said: "Look, Spartacus, it'll be alright. There has to be somebody out there that's going to want to back us up financially and we'll find a way to..." but he was stopped when Spartacus finally raise his head from his knees and gave Agron the most devastated look he had ever seen someone give him in his entire life.   
  
"Three years. Three freakin' years that we've been trying to start this project from the ground up and what do we have to show for our efforts? A lot of kicks in our asses, no funding money no matter how hard we try and a bunch of old stuff at home that we're not even sure will ever be seen by anyone but us. And even if we try to find some funding somewhere else, we're always going to have the same answer. We might as well give up while we still have some of our dignity left, Agron." Spartacus said, wiping at his eyes and standing up to start the seemingly long way back home, a discouraged Agron following behind.   
  
As they said their farewell on the steps of Agron's rented house, the tall man closed the front door and sat back against it. What were they going to do now? All this work and all these items searches, for nothing? His and mostly Spartacus' dream was gone up in smoke, just like that? And if he couldn't do this, then he wouldn't be able to atone for what happened between him and...  
  
Then, as his thoughts hit their lowest, a tiny voice ringed from the back of his mind...  
  
 _Unless..._  
  
Standing up and dusting himself off, Agron went upstairs with a newly determined look upon his face. Maybe there was a way he could fix this, for him, but mostly for Spartacus who had worked so hard and believed in this project so badly, that Agron would do anything to make it a reality. And if by the last few days had shown him, maybe anything was indeed possible...  
  
He entered his bedroom and went straight to his nightstand. He picked the green bottle in his hands and in a determined voice, he opened the cork and said out loud: "Nasir, are you in there? I know what my first wish is going to be!"  
  
And with a puff of smoke, a smile on his face and looking like he had been the day before and not like that morning when they had met with Spartacus, the genie appeared before him. "Well, what will be your first wish, master?" Nasir asked ceremoniously.  
  
Tightening his hold unto the bottle, Agron closed his eyes and responded:  
  
 _I wish for Mr. Crassus to change his mind and help Spartacus and me fund our museum project._  
  
Nasir's golden bracelets began to glow, even more than the day before and the genie's eyes suddenly turned an even paler shade of white than the first time Agron had seen him done it.  
  
Meanwhile, in an office a couple of miles from there, Tiberius was working on some files he had been neglecting as of late and wanted to finish before his father noticed. In his father's office nearby, Spartacus and Agron's file had been put in the recycle bin like it was nothing. Without anyone noticing what was going on, a glowing light started to emanate from the bin and the file that had been thrown in there suddenly disappeared and found itself materialized on the top of the pile of files that Tiberious was checking out, without the young man noticing. Not knowing it was the project that his father had officially rejected that morning, Tiberius opened the file and took a look at it himself.   
  
Nasir's whitened eyes went back to normal and with a smirk, he simply said in an almost ethereal voice:   
  
_Done._  
  
And that was confirmed a couple of hours later when Agron received a phone call from a overly excited Spartacus, shrieking out: "You're never going to believe this, but Mr. Crassus just called me. Apparently his son took a look at our file and with some very persistent arguments and nagging that he received, he's going to give us a chance after all. We've got our funding!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time, we get a little bit of Agron's backstory and who exactly is this person Agron wants to atone something for? Find out next time! :)


	4. Celebrations and revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nasir and Spartacus talk and some stuff is revealed about Agron's past, including a big one.

To celebrate their project finally going through after all this time, Agron invited Spartacus to his place later that night for dinner and some champagne and because of Nasir's constant pleading, he agreed that the smaller man could celebrate with them, as long as he behaved, to which Nasir gratefully agreed.  
  
While he had a fair share of masters over the time that he had been like this, the past five years had been longest time that Nasir had spent without one, sleeping but not really, in his small bottle. His last memory before being woken up by Agron and his translated Arabic words was of his last master, a greedy woman who after wishing for riches and still wanting more despite having used all of her wishes, was about to destroy Nasir and had picked up his bottle to do so when his home and himself had mysteriously disappeared in a blinding light and that was all that Nasir could remember. His next memory after disappearing was coming out of the green bottle, feeling like he had woken up from a long rest, in a garage somewhere, to a screaming tall and handsome man and five years having passed. Since his magic was connected with the power of the Earth, he caught up with the rest of the world in an instant and knew in a flash what had happened while he had laid dormant in his bottle. While he couldn't touch anything because of his smoke-like structure, he still could make himself look like any other human beings around him in looks and manners, so that people wouldn't grow suspicious of him and ask where he came from. Which is what he was doing right at this moment, adorning some nice-looking cargo pants and a buttoned-up shirt, refusing for what seemed like the hundredth time that night a glass of champagne from the hands of a celebratory Spartacus, faking the notion that he couldn't stand alcohol instead of just not being able to touch said glass.  
  
"Are you absolutely, positively sure you can't drink alcohol?" Spartacus asked him with an exasperated sigh.  
  
"Yes, I'm positively sure. But thank you anyway for the offer." Nasir replied with a smile. They were just the two of them for now in Agron's house, the latter gone to the supermarket to buy some missing things he needed to make their celebratory dinner for that night. So Spartacus and Nasir had taken upon themselves to walk around the house and talk for a bit, about everything and nothing. Nasir couldn't stop himself with peppering Spartacus with questions about Agron. While he had known his new master's name the second he had first come out of his bottle (the binding that been formed between the genie and the master when Agron had first read the inscription on the paper that came with Nasir's bottle had made it so), but while he might have known his name from the get-go just like he did with his previous masters, he knew nothing else about him besides that, just like what had happened with his previous masters. So Spartacus had tried to give him as much information as he could.   
  
Agron had come from a family of two, his parents having emigrated from Germany when they were very young. Unfortunately, he had been left alone with his sibling to live with his aunt when their parents had divorced when he had been very young himself and neither wanted anything to do with the responsibility of young children. But still, he had a great childhood with his sibling, living with his aunt in her great big house and was never left wanting for anything. It was when high school came around that things turned extremely sour for Agron's life...  
  
Spartacus' tale ended quickly when the pair heard the sound of a key being turned in the lock of the front door and with an armful of groceries, an out-of-breath Agron entered the house. He took a look at the both of them and exclaimed in a huff: "Excuse me, would you two stop chatting and help me with these, please?" to which Spartacus hastily went over and helped his best friend with his bags, bringing them into the kitchen, Nasir trailing along behind them. As they set the necessary items on the kitchen counter, Agron asked the other two men: "So, what were you guys talking about while I was gone?"  
  
Nasir smiled at him and being a bit hesitant to talk about what Spartacus had revealed about his past, he replied: "Oh, you know, nothing all that important, regular guy stuff." to which Spartacus nodded along with him, not wanting to talk about what they had chatted about too much.   
  
And so a couple of hours later, the three of them were sitting at the dinner table, laughing and eating, well it was only Agron and Spartacus that were actually eating after Nasir had said that he had already eaten earlier that afternoon and wasn't very hungry. So, as they were laughing at a joke that Agron had made and finishing up dinner, something came up in Spartacus' mind that he wanted to share with Agron.  
  
"Oh yeah, by the way," Spartacus started, "to celebrate our new partnership, Mr. Crassus has invited you and I to a little shindig this weekend at his house, apparently it's for one of his wife's many charities or something like that. He wants to presents us and our project to some of his partners that'll be there. I hope you have something nice to wear. "  
  
Agron's nodded his head and his face turned from a smile to a frown when he asked his best friend: "What day is it exactly? I hope it's not Sunday night, because you know I have..."  
  
"No, no, don't worry, it's the day before, so you'll have plenty of time to do what you have to do. I wouldn't have asked you to go if it had been on Sunday, don't worry." Spartacus reassured him with a sad smile. Agron flashed him a small weary smile in response and got up to clean up the table.   
  
While Agron was in the kitchen and out of sight, Nasir couldn't help but ask Spartacus: "What's going on Sunday night? Why wouldn't Agron have been able to go to Mr. Crassus' party if it had been on that particular date?"  
  
Spartacus turned his eyes towards a nearby shelf near the door that lead to the kitchen and nodded his head at a frame that adorned the top. In the frame there was a picture of a younger-looking Agron, probably aged around 16 or 17 years old, standing next to a kid looking younger than him. The both of them were smiling like they had not a care in the world. With a sad look on his face, Spartacus explained to Nasir: "It's because Sunday night is Agron's little brother Duro's birthday and Agron's going to visit him for the occasion, at the cemetery."  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is Mr. Crassus' party and the attraction between Agron and Nasir continues to grow!


	5. The posh party and the plaguing thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agron and Spartacus attend Mr. Crassus' party, but not before leaving Nasir flustered and making the genie and the master asking themselves some questions.

And so Saturday came by pretty quickly, a little too quickly for Agron's taste. He had never really liked posh parties, what with the whole dressing-up in expensive clothes and being polite and all that stuff wasn't really his style. To him, laying around on the couch watching TV or just taking a walk somewhere breathing some fresh air was his definition of a good time. But still, tonight was very important for him, but mostly for Spartacus and if that meant wearing a tuxedo and acting all hoity-toity, then so be it.  
  
Downstairs, Spartacus was tapping his foot and looking at his watch. He yelled out: "Agron! Come on dude, we're going to be late!"   
  
To which he got a yell from upstairs that it would "only take a minute! I just need to get my tie and I'm on my way!"  
  
Nasir was pacing from left to right, next to Spartacus, feeling nervous for both Agron and the other man, since tonight was such a big night for the both of them. He wanted his master to make a good impression on Mr. Crassus and the rest of the guests that would be there and to him that started with Agron taking his "ass downstairs before Spartacus leaves without you!"  
  
"Alright alright, don't need to be so pushy, geez, I'm coming!" came another shout before Agron finally made his way down the stairs while adjusting his tie and coming into Spartacus', but mostly Nasir's view. While before it had been Nasir that had took Agron's breath away by dressing in normal-people clothing, this time the roles had been reversed, because Nasir hadn't been prepared at just how gorgeous Agron was looking right about now. Sure, Nasir found Agron to be very attractive dressed in anything the other man would wear, but he had never seen his master dressed in something so classy and it made him look thousands of times more beautiful in Nasir's eyes. The black in his tuxedo made his green eyes shine like emeralds and the way he was looking so damper and official made him look like royalty to the genie  
  
Agron made a quick 360 on himself and asked the other two men: "So, how do I look?"   
  
Spartacus clapped him friendlily on the back and responded proudly: "You look great."  
  
Nasir, who was usually so talkative and never afraid to express his opinion, for once couldn't get the words out of his mouth. All he could muster out was a spattered: "Uh, yeah, uh, you look fine, I mean good. I mean, gorgeous, I mean uh..." and he felt ashamed when a blush crept upon his cheek, making Agron smirk at him.   
  
The other man approached Nasir and his smirk widening, he whispered right into his ear: "Well, well, well, who's the embarrassed one now?"  
  
"Will...will you please just go?!" Nasir could only respond, trying to fight off his sudden shyness at how close Agron was to him now looking like he did and he did all he could to avoid eye contact with the other man, fearing he might say something that he might regret later.  
  
Spartacus looked at the pair and with a smile and a opened door, he said: "Now if you two would stop making lusty eyes at each other..." to which both Nasir and Agron both retorted _"No we're not!"_ at the same time, to which Spartacus chuckled and continued:  
  
"Well, whether or not you are, it doesn't really matter, because if we don't move out of here right at this moment," he looked at his watch and concluded: "we're *really* going to be late. So Agron, if you please?" Spartacus opened the front door even wider and with a gesture, indicated to Agron to lead the way.   
  
With one last lingering look at Nasir, Agron stepped away from the genie and as he was about to leave, he said: "I'll probably return late tonight, so don't wait up for me okay?"  
  
To which Nasir replied, with his eyes on Agron and with a nervous smile: "Um, okay. Good luck and goodnight guys!" He turned around to try and control his nerves and it was only when he heard the door close at last that he could finally calm down and assess everything. To which he could only conclude: What the hell had just happened between him and Agron just now? Since when did he become so out of words when he was near someone? Since when did nerves get in his way?

The other time when he had been the one to flirt with Agron, it had been in good fun, even though in the back of his mind he *had* in fact found Agron incredibly handsome the moment he had first met him, but this right there? What was that all about? With the way Agron had looked at him right before he had left the house with Spartacus, Nasir couldn't help but wonder to himself: was Agron also attracted to him?  
  
 ***********  
  
It was the same kind of thoughts that plagued Agron's mind all through the night as he was mingling with the upper class while eating some richly food and drinking some richly drink. He faked laughed at the poor attempts at what were supposed to be jokes made by the gentlemen attending the party, but his mind couldn't stop coming back towards at what happened back at his house a couple of hours earlier. Was Nasir attracted to him? The way he had become flabbergasted when the taller man had went down the stairs and the way Nasir became all shy and embarrassed when he had been approached seemed to indicate so. So, this thing that was going on between them was a two-way street after all?

Because Agron had in fact become attracted to Nasir in the matter of time he had come to know him: with his dark eyes, his wide smile and infectious laugh, his lush dark hair, everything about him just seemed to shine to Agron for some reason. But when they had first met and Nasir had complemented him before disappearing, he had thought it had been his imagination and there had been nothing there. But had he been wrong after all? Could there be something developing between Nasir and him that was beyond friendship after all? And was it possible for a master and his genie to be together this way at all?  
  
His thoughts were interrupted when Mr. Crassus came to him and Spartacus accompanied by a red-headed woman. "Spartacus, Agron! Let me introduce you to one of my wife's best friends and the president of the Ludus Pharmaceutical Corporation, Lucretia. Lucretia, these were the gentlemen I was talking to you about earlier, Spartacus and Agron, who will be responsible for the museum I'm helping funding." Marc said as the woman approached the two men.   
  
"Very nice to meet you both." said Lucretia with a gentle smile.   
  
Ever the gentleman, Spartacus responded by taking her hand, kissing its knuckles and responding: "No, it is nice to meet you, madam."   
  
Lucretia giggled like a little schoolgirl, charmed by Spartacus' manners. She asked him: "So, Marc has told me a lot about you and your project, what kind of objects will you be exposing there?"   
  
Presenting her his elbow which she took gracefully, Spartacus began to walk around the house with the woman, talking about his project and everything that would come with it. This left Agron with Mr. Crassus, making him a bit uncomfortable.   
  
"He seems really into his project, I for one cannot wait to work on it." Mr. Crassus exclaimed with joy as he watched the retreating pair, even with a little too much joy to be considered normal.  He turned toward Agron and couldn't help but ask: "So, Agron, do you live by yourself or does someone else share your home ?"  
  
"Well sir, I've lived by myself ever since I began college a couple of years ago but someone has come to live with me very recently." Agron responded, not wanting to give too much details to this man he didn't really know.  
  
Marc smiled and added: "Ah, I see. Significant other or a friend?"  
  
Agron frowned at that question and thinking about everything that had happened in the last few days and mostly about what had happened just earlier that night, all he could answer was: "I don't know."   
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: Agron visits his brother at the cemetery and while there, he and Nasir connect on an emotional level, the second wish is made and a dream changes everything for the both of them. Stay tuned! :D


	6. The dead and the dreaming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Duro's birthday and Agron visits him at the cemetery. Could he have a chance he never had before now that he has a genie?

The next day was much somber for Agron than the previous one had been. As it was tradition for him on what was supposed to be his brother Duro's birthday, he spent all day looking through old photo albums and old tapes featuring the both of them and reminiscing about all the good and the bad times that they had shared through his brother's sadly short life. This was his way of grieving, taking a day out of each year to get all the bad feelings out of his system so that he could survive the rest of the year without drowning in feelings of sorrow, shame and unbelievable guilt. Because Agron had always blamed himself for Duro's death and with the way their relationship had become when his life had ended. In his mind, it was his fault that Duro died because of the events that happened before it and he would always feel that way, no matter how much time had passed and how much grieving he would do, that part of him would always exist he just knew it.  
  
After the party had ended the night before and Agron had gone home, Nasir had been nowhere in sight, which had been a good thing for Agron and his still plaguing thoughts that had haunted him all through the night. The genie also didn't make himself known at all throughout the next day, probably having decided that it was best to leave Agron alone on this dreary day and for the grieving man, this had been a good idea. He didn't have the courage to face Nasir after what had happened just before he had left for the party and with the next coming day and what that implied, his mind was already so full of weird and confusing thoughts that he didn't want the weight of his feelings about Nasir on top of his grieving for Duro to rest on his shoulders at the same time, he would face them one at a time. Right now, his mind and heart was focused on Duro and only Duro and as he watched for what seemed like the hundredth time a video of the brothers as children at a BBQ splashing around in their aunt's huge swimming pool and having the time of their lives, he wiped his eyes and sniffed, lost in his souvenirs and sadness over what had happened all those years ago.  
  
 ***********  
  
As it was tradition every year on Duro's supposed birthday, Agron finished the day by visiting the cemetery where Duro had been laid almost 10 years before, where he would sit by Duro's gravestone and talk to his brother about what had happened in the previous year, like he was in fact alive and right sitting next to him, listening eagerly to his brother's tales about himself, his friends and his life.  
  
And so Agron arrived at the cemetery that night, parking his car nearby and walked into the grass-covered site, roses in hands. He spotted the marble stone with Duro's name engraved into it and slowly, he approached the site where his brother had been laid to rest. When he finally stood in front of it, he delicately set his bouquet at the foot of the tombstone and sat down in front of it. Then, just like he did every year, he began to speak:  
  
"Hey, it's me. Happy 24th birthday, little brother. I hope you like the flowers, I picked up white roses because I remembered you've always found red ones to be too clichéd, so... I'm doing good, we finally got the funding we wanted for the museum, so that's going right on track. Went to a posh party last night, you would have hated it, lots of prissy people acting all snobbish and all that shit, you know? I'm sure you would have preferred those kegs party we used to do when we were young, back in high school, like the one before you...  
  
I, I just miss you, you know. Spent all day watching videos and photos of us, like I do every year when your birthday comes by. And no matter how much time really does passes, I'm always going to blame myself for what happened and that you aren't here with me now and I'm talking like a lunatic to a piece of marble every year instead. And what am I doing that for anyways, it's not like you've ever heard me say anything, you're far away and you're never coming back and I'm all alone, as I should be, since it was my fault that you're dead." he finished, tears now streaming down his cheeks and doing his best to wipe them out, but to no avail, every word that he spoke out loud only made his eyes more watery. His throat became constricted with emotions and he looked down at the ground, ashamed and thoroughly sad.  
  
He sobbed out: "I'm so sorry, Duro. This is all my fault. I'm so fuckin' sorry!" Slowly, he began to calm himself down and after taking deep calming breaths, he added out loud in a shaky voice. "If only I could find a way to let you know how sorry I am."  
  
 _"What are you sorry for?"_  
  
A voice out of nowhere came to him and he whipped his head around and saw that Nasir was standing next to him with a sad look upon his face. Quickly, Agron wiped the tracks of tears from his cheeks with his hands and said: "How did you get here? Shouldn't you be with your bottle, like you're always are?"  
  
"You took the bottle with you here, don't you remember? It's on the backseat of your car." Nasir said and at the invitation of Agron, he sat next to his master on the cold grass in front of Duro's tombstone. Together they sat there for a while, saying nothing, trying to ease the awkwardness that had fallen on the pair ever since the night before. Nasir was the first to speak after a long silence between the two:  
  
"Spartacus told me about your brother the other day. I'm really sorry."  
  
"Oh, it's okay. I just take a day every year to grieve so I don't go insane in the rest of it. Kind of cathartic, you know?" Agron said with a weak smile, sniffling again.  
  
"But, I just don't get it. Why are you blaming yourself for him dying? How did he die?" Nasir asked curiously, wanting to know his master's story. Taking a long, shaking breath, Agron raised his head and as he looked upon the name on the grave in front of him, he began to tell his story:  
  
"We were always close, Duro and me. Got through a lot of shit together: parents splitting up, school, girlfriends, boyfriends, all of that. Then high school came by and just like we'd always done, we went through that together. We were popular kids, big stars in the football league, the other guys and the teachers just loved us. But there was this girl Duro had a crush on, but he was too shy to ask her out, so he asked me to talk to her for him, to see if she looked interested. We actually became good friends because of that, her and me. But there was this one time, at a keg party that one of the guy from the team was throwing. Everybody was drunk and having a good time, until the girl invited me upstairs, in one of the private bedrooms the house had. I thought, what the hell, I'm going to be able to talk to her and ask her if she had any interest in Duro. Turns out, she actually had a thing, but for me. When we got into the bedroom, she threw herself at me and started kissing me. We were both drunk of our asses and I think she didn't know what she was doing, but I tried my best to stop her and I was about to when Duro made his entrance. He saw her on top of me and just exploded right there. Said I went along with his plan to get close to her to get to her first and that was not true. I already knew I liked boys back then and I had no interest in that girl at all, but Duro had already left the house but not before he said that he hated me and never wanted to talk to me ever again. I should have said something, stopped him and explained everything to him, but I was too drunk and ended up passing out right there on the bed, right next to the girl that was also passed out.  
  
When I woke up the next morning, my aunt called me sounding very upset, said that Duro hadn't come home the night before and she was wondering where he was. I had no idea, but I found out a couple of hours later when we got a call from the hospital: said that there had been an accident, someone had been drunk driving and had ended up hitting a traffic pole and had been killed on the spot. It was Duro that was in that car, he had taken it when he had left the house after seeing me and that girl and since it had been a keg party, well you know how he got drunk. I've always felt like it was my fault that that happened, that I shouldn't have gotten so drunk that I accepted the girl's invitation to go upstairs in that house, I would have been able to explain everything to Duro instead of doing nothing and having him hating me right before he died. Since that night, I've never gotten that drunk again, except maybe a few glasses here and there, but I've always stopped myself at one drink, because I know what could happen if I take more than that. And I've tried to help people as much as I could, especially my aunt and Spartacus, so that maybe my guilt about what happened with Duro is going to go away, but it hasn't and I don't think it's ever going to go away, no matter how much time's going to by and no matter what I do. Because he'll never know how sorry I am about everything and how much I regret what happened that night and that I'll never forgive myself that he's gone because of me." Agron finished his tale, wiping his eyes but failing to control his tears. Nasir looked at him with sad eyes and wished he could reach out and pull the other man into a hug, but knowing he couldn't, he simply smiled at him sympathetically and said:  
  
"I know a bit how you feel. I wasn't always like this, you know? I had a family once, at least I think I did, but that was so long ago. I'm all that's left of them."  
  
Turning his head to look at the genie, Agron asked curiously: "Did you have any siblings, sisters, brothers?"  
  
Nasir looked at his master and bowing his head at the ground, he responded: "I remember having a sister, at least I think I did, seems like such a long time since I actually had a normal life, but I did. I could touch, I could feel, I could eat whatever I wanted, I could go wherever I wanted without being stuck to a stupid bottle. The only person I had to answer to was me and I didn't have to do anything other people told me to do if I didn't want to do it. But now I'm just like you, I'm all alone and everybody I knew back then are long gone and I never had the chance to tell them goodbye."  
  
"So I guess we're all alone together, heh?" Agron said with a little smile on his lips, looking at Nasir to which the genie couldn't help but smile back. Agron sniffed once again then added: "I don't even know what I'm doing here anyways, all I've been doing all this time is talking to a piece of rock and it's not like my brother has ever heard what I've been blathering about every time I come here."  
  
Nasir looked at Agron silently for a long moment and then, with a renewed look of determination on his face, he replied: "Well, maybe there is a way to find out if he has in fact heard you."  
  
Agron looked at him as if he was crazy and said: "How? You said yourself that you couldn't raise the dead."  
  
With a snap of his fingers, Nasir made his green bottle appear at Agron's feet and with a smile, said: "Maybe not, but I can raise the veil that exists between the living and the dead and if Duro was in fact buried here, then maybe there's a way to get in contact with him."  
  
His hands gripping the neck of the bottle, Agron looked at Duro's gravestone. Could he really do that? Could he really have the chance after all this time to actually talk to his brother and tell him how sorry he was about everything? As the expression said, it wouldn't hurt to try, now would it? Standing up and still holding the bottle in his hands, he watched as the genie stood up too and closing his eyes, he said his second wish out loud:  
  
 _I wish that I could talk to my brother Duro and tell him how sorry I am about everything._  
  
Nasir's eyes whitened and the bracelets on his arms glowed, just like the first time, but Agron was still keeping his eyes closed, fearing that the wish wouldn't work and nothing would happen. After what seemed like a gust of warm wind passed by him and the air around himself seemed to return to normal, he waited a beat, then two, but heard nor felt anything. He was about to give up, when suddenly:  
  
 _"Agron?"_  
  
"D...Duro?!" Not believing his ears, Agron opened his eyes and couldn't believe it. Right next to Nasir stood a young man, with a shocked look upon his face. He looked to be around his mid-twenties and when Agron took a closer look into the man's eyes, that's when he recognized him. It was Duro!  
  
Duro took two steps forwards and was now standing a couple of inches from his older brother. Reaching up, he smiled as his hand made contact with Agron's trembling face. "Agron!" he exclaimed out loud, bringing his other hand to cup his brother's head into them. Brought into Duro's arms, Agron completely broke down sobbing like a child when he felt himself being comforted by his younger brother.  
  
"Duro! Duro! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! It's all my fault! I'm so sorry that you're gone!" Agron cried out, clinging to his brother for dear life. Duro could only raise one of his hand and caressed his brother's head lovingly, reassuring him.  
  
"Shh, shh, it's okay. It wasn't your fault. It was just a whole misunderstanding, I'm sorry that I yelled at you like that that night and never gave you time to explain. It was my fault actually, I should have never left the house and drove that drunk." Duro said softly, pulling back and looking at his brother in the eyes, his hands cupping his face tenderly.  
  
"But you hated me and it was my fault that you did leave in the first place and now you're gone and I'm so alone! I don't know what to do!" said Agron, with tears still trailing down his cheeks.  
  
Duro smiled and raised his face to kiss his brother on the forehead, like a parent would do to console a child. "I don't hate you, I never hated you. I said some things in the heat of the moment but I never once hated you for a second in my life. And even now I don't and I never will, I want you to know that. And I want you to stop blaming yourself for what happened, okay? It wasn't your fault and it has never been your fault, okay?" he pleaded Agron, looking him straight in the eye, to which the other man could only nod. "And you're not alone, alright? You've got Spartacus, from what I've seen is a great friend and you've got this guy over here." Duro added, pointing to Nasir who could only smile shyly at the pair. "And you've got me. Even though I might not be here anymore, I'm always going to be with you, wherever you are and whatever happens, okay? And you can still come here and talk to me, whenever you want. I've always heard what you've told me every time you've come here for my birthday and you were never just talking to a piece of stone, believe me." he said with a watery smile. Bringing his brother into his arms one more time, he hugged Agron tightly and whispered into his ear: "I love you, Agron, so much. Never forget that."  
  
Agron squeezed his younger brother into his arms as tightly as he could and whispered back: "I love you too Duro. And I'll never forget you, ever, I promise."  
  
Releasing him and stepping back, Duro said with a laugh: "Well you better not.", to which Agron smirked back at him.  
  
With one final smile and feeling it was time for Duro to go back to wherever he had come from, he said: "Hey Duro!"

Duro looked at him one more time and asked: "Yeah?"  
  
With one final tear dripping down his face, Agron smiled at him and simply said: "Happy birthday."  
  
And in a blinding flash, but just before Duro disappeared before his very eyes, his younger brother whispered: "Thank you." And just like that, he was gone, leaving a shaken Agron and an emotional looking Nasir all by themselves in the still cold night. Well, not really all by themselves, because unbeknown to the both of them, somewhere nearby, someone had seen the whole supernatural spectacle from a pair of binoculars and was reporting what he had just witnessed over the phone.  
  
 ***********  
   
After what had ended up being a very emotional day, a drained Agron finally returned home after driving him and Nasir from the cemetery. As the both of them went upstairs to get ready to go to bed, Agron looked at Nasir and couldn't help but ask, while the genie was sitting on his bed: "You know, I don't know if anybody ever asked you this before, but if you were the one that could make any wishes that he wanted, what would you wish for?"  
  
Nasir scratched his head for an instant, thinking really hard about it and after a moment, replied: "You know, nobody has actually ever asked me that question before and to tell you the truth, I don't really know what I would wish for if I had the chance. I think that with a bit more thinking, I'll be able to come up with an answer."  
  
Smiling at the response, Agron nodded, but said nothing, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Nasir, feeling the awkwardness from the night before coming back between them, got up from the bed and stretching his arms, he said: "Well, not to be abrupt, but I think it's getting late and we should probably both get some sleep."  
  
Agron looked at him and opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but closed it back in a flash, content to just fake smile back at the genie and reply: "Yeah, got some school in the morning, don't want to get up too late for that."  
  
He stifled a yawn, making Nasir chuckle and opening the top of his bottle with the intent to go in it for the rest of the night, the genie smiled at his master and said: "Yeah, you really do deserve some sleep after everything that happened tonight. So, goodnight!" and with that, he was about to disappear into his bottle when Agron took a step forward and suddenly yelled out:  
  
"Wait!"  
  
To which Nasir stopped dematerializing and looked at Agron curiously. "What is it?" he asked his master.  
  
Gathering up his courage, Agron finally asked what he had wanted to ask Nasir earlier, but hadn't had the guts to. "Look, I don't really wanna be alone tonight. Could you maybe not sleep in your bottle tonight and instead sleep here, in this bed, next to me?" he requested, pointing to his bed.  
  
With a surprised look, as nobody had ever asked him this kind of favor before, Nasir looked at the bed and then at Agron. Seeing the pleading look on Agron's face and not wanting to sleep alone that night either, Nasir could only reply with a soft smile: "Sure, I will." and with that, he carefully laid on the bed on top of the covers, not really feeling it because of his smoke-like build but because of his powers, he could still be solid enough to lay and sit on solid structure if he wished to.  
  
Agron smiled at the genie and removing his clothes down to just his boxers, he pulled the covers up to his neck, closing the lights and looking at Nasir laying right next to him with his eyes closed, he whispered: "Goodnight Nasir and thank you for tonight."  
  
To which a whispered: "You're very welcome and goodnight to you too." resonated in the air and with that, laying so close to one another, the master and the genie both went into the land of dreams with twin smiles upon their faces.  
  
 ************  
  
 _Agron was back at Mr. Crassus' house, back at the party from the night before. He was wearing the same clothes from the event. He looked around and found himself in a similar situation than that night, with Mr. Crassus looking at him with a smile and asking him: "So, Agron, do you live by yourself or does someone else share your home ?"_  
  
 _"Well sir, I've lived by myself ever since I began college a couple of years ago but someone has come to live with me very recently." Agron repeated like he had that night, not wanting to give too much details to this man he didn't really know._  
  
 _Marc smiled and added: "Ah, I see. Significant other or a friend?"_  
  
 _But unlike the night before, Agron smiled at Mr. Crassus and responded for some reason: "My significant other actually, I love him very much." to which Marc's smile widened and he cheerfully clapped him on the back and responded:_  
  
 _"Good for you my boy! It's nice to see love blossom in this day and age."_  
  
 _A cough was heard behind the pair and Marc turned his head and exclaimed at the person interrupting their conversation: "Well, speak of the devil! We were just talk about you, my boy!"_  
  
 _The other person took a step between Mr. Crassus and Agron and the taller man recognized Nasir and he was too dressed in a tuxedo just like him and it made him look like an angel, with his thousand-watts smile and his cascading hair tied into a pony-tail. Smiling with a twinkle into his eyes, Nasir got closer to Agron and whispered: "Really, you guys were talking about me?"_  
  
 _Agron for some reason reached forward and to his complete surprise, was able to take Nasir's hand into his own and feeling his warm fingers against his own.  Looking back into Nasir's eyes, he whispered back: "Yeah, we actually kinda were. I was actually telling him how lucky I am to have you in my life._  
  
 _At his words,[soft music](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvzNeh4Mq1o) started to play throughout the house. Nodding his head towards the center of the room, Nasir asked with a soft smile: "May I dance with the most handsome man in the room?"_  
  
 _Feeling a blush creep upon his cheek and smiling even wider, Agron replied: "Yes, you shall." and with that, the pair made their way to the center of Mr. Crassus' ballroom and looking at each other like there were nobody else in the room except them, Nasir wrapped his arms around Agron's neck while the other man wrapped his arms around Nasir's waist and together, they started to slowly sway back and forth, closing their eyes and enjoying the feeling of being in the arms of the other. Nasir laid his head on Agron's shoulder, bringing the pair even closer than before and Agron couldn't help himself and smelled and touched Nasir's soft hair, feeling as content as he had ever felt before in his entire life._  
  
 _After what seemed like an eternity, the music stopped playing all by itself and Agron and Nasir stopped dancing. Pulling back, Nasir looked deeply into Agron's emerald eyes and asked: "Agron?"_  
  
 _"Hmm?" sighed Agron, tucking a loose strand of Nasir's hair behind his ears. He looked around the room and for some reason, everybody else had disappeared, leaving only the two of them in the empty ballroom. "What is it?" as he returned his eyes towards Nasir's, getting lost into their darks depths._  
  
 _"You know how before you asked me what I would wish for if I had the chance to wish for whatever I wanted?" Nasir added, his smile widening._  
  
 _"Yeah?" replied Agron, his grip tightening around Nasir's waist, not wanting to let him go for anything in the world._  
  
 _"I think that this is what I would have wished for, to have a chance to be with you like this, no restraints, no lies to tell anyone. To be able to be in your arms just like you to be in mine." Nasir finally said, slowly leaning his face towards Agron's._  
  
 _"Oh, Nasir." was all Agron could reply, as he too leaned his head towards the other man's, bringing their lips closer together. They were about to touch when suddenly,_  
  
Agron woke up in a start.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Agron makes a decision about his final wish, but will he be able to actually make it? Stay tuned for that one! :)


	7. Thinking... thinking... thinking... gone?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agron thinks about his situation and his feelings for Nasir and makes a decision about his third wish. But will he able to actually make it?

Agron looked around his bedroom, his heart beating wildly in his chest and taking deep calming breaths, his eyes fell onto the spot right next to him and he realized with a tinge of disappointment that Nasir had disappeared and saw that the top of his bottle was now closed. He must have startled the genie when he had woken up and the other man must have gone into his bottle in fright. He laid back on the bed, closing his eyes and trying to make some sense of the dream he had just woken up from. If he had been confused before when his attraction to Nasir had just been on a physical level, this time he was completely befuddled now that he realized that his feelings ran much deeper than he had originally thought.

With the way he had acted and the way he had looked at Nasir in the dream, there was no doubts in his mind now, what he was feeling for the genie was much more than friendship. But, two questions arose from all of this and he didn't know what to do: first of all, did Nasir feel the same way about him? The genie was attracted to him, at least he knew that for sure, but did he like him more than as a friend? Could genies actually feel these kinds of feelings since they weren't entirely human? Sure, Nasir had acted in a loving way toward him in his dream, but that was just it: it had been just a dream. Dream-Nasir was not Reality-Nasir, no matter how much he wanted him to be. Two people couldn't have the exact same dream, so it was impossible in his mind that the Nasir that he had dreamed about was the one that had slept right next to him, Dream-Nasir had just been a concoction of his subconscious.  
  
And the other thing: what could he do about it? With the way they were now, even if Nasir had feelings for him, there was no way that a relationship would work. First of all, they couldn't even touch, so any affectionate or sexual contact was impossible and secondly and most importantly, Agron was Nasir's master. To put it simply, as long as Nasir stayed the way he was, he would essentially be Agron's slave and that wasn't really a good basis for a relationship, at least as far as Agron was concerned. So, that left him with two options in his mind, but there weren't really good ones. First, if Nasir only saw him as his master and nothing more, all he had to do is use his last wish and they could go their separate ways, because he knew he couldn't keep on living with Nasir if the genie only saw him in a friendly manner with how deep Agron's feelings truly ran. But what would happen exactly after he used his last wish? Would Nasir just disappear and they would never see each other again? When he really thought about it, he wasn't so sure it would be that easy for him to give up the genie.

He had grown accustomed to having Nasir into his life and he didn't know if he could return to a world without him in it. But there also was the opposite that he could do: could Agron just never use his last wish and keep Nasir prisoner forever? He knew he couldn't do that to Nasir when he thought about that option, no matter how the other man felt about him. All that he knew for sure was that he couldn't continue living this way, with so many things left unknown between the two of them. The questions and doubts was piling on and on in Agron's mind and as he looked at the clock, he realized that if he didn't get up now and get ready, he would be late for class. Shaking his head to attempt to set his ideas straight, Agron got out of bed and went into his drawers to see what he would wear for school, trying his damnest to leave all thoughts of Nasir out of his mind. But unbeknown to him, on the other side of the bedroom door where he had taken refuge the moment Agron had woken up, Nasir was thinking and feeling the exact same things as his master did and just like him, he didn't know what to do about it.  
  
 *************  
  
If he had thought that time and school would make his thoughts go away, Agron had been dead wrong because as much as he tried all throughout the day to focus on his classes and what the teachers had to say, his mind and his heart couldn't stop haunting him about everything that had happened in the last few days and the genie that he had left back at home. All that he knew is that the more he thought about it, the more he was sure of one thing: he wanted to be with Nasir more than anything else in the world. But, and there was always a but whenever his mind turned to the positive, there was the matter of their roles as master and genie and also the non-touching factor that came popping right out and he found himself once again back at the starting point, confused and not knowing what to do about his situation. And the tension between the two had to end, it had been thick enough that he hadn't seen Nasir all through the previous morning and as he was about to leave for school, he didn't even appear to say goodbye to Agron.

If things didn't get cleared up between the two one way or another and soon, something or someone was going to give and it probably wouldn't be pretty As he finished his last class of the day and the sun was setting, he found himself outside of the University, on a small bench near the entrance, his head in his hands, trying to think once and for all of a solution to all of this. What could he do? What could he do? What could he...  
  
 _"I know a bit how you feel. I wasn't always like this, you know?"_  
  
 _"I could feel, I could eat whatever I wanted, I could go wherever I wanted without being stuck to a stupid bottle. The only person I had to answer to was me and I didn't have to do anything other people told me to do if I didn't want to do."_  
  
Suddenly, a third option presented itself to Agron, one he found himself stupid of not thinking about in the first place. Getting up from the bench and walking home with a new spring in his step, Agron now knew what he had to do: he would tell Nasir how he felt about him and tell him the option that he had thought for their situation. If Nasir wanted nothing to do with Agron, then he would let the genie go without regrets whatsoever, but if he felt the same way about him and wanted the same things that Agron did, then he would use his last wish to remedy their predicament.   
  
He finally arrived home just after the night had fallen and excitedly, he climbed the steps to his front door two by two. As he went to open the door, he was surprised to see it was unlocked. _Funny_ , he thought, _I was so sure I locked it right before I went to school_. Shaking his head at the slightly worrying thoughts nagging his mind, he opened the door and stepped inside his house.   
  
"Nasir! Nasir! Where are you man, I've gotta talk to you about something, it's really important!" Agron called out through the house, but he got no response. Shrugging his shoulders, Agron went up the stairs and once again called out: "Nasir! Come out, come out from wherever you are! There's something I really wanna tell you!" As he opened his bedroom door and stepped inside, he looked around and again nobody was in sight. "Come on Nasir, this isn't funny! I wanna talk to you, so come out, please?" he called out one more time. But still no answer from anywhere. Where could have the genie have gone? But then Agron remembered: the bottle! All he had to do was to get the green bottle and summon Nasir with it, since he knew the genie couldn't get far without it since it was his home. So he went to his bottom drawer where he had put the green bottle and the piece of paper that went along with it securely inside that very morning and opened it. And to his horror, it was empty. The bottle and the piece of paper: gone.   
  
He went through all of his drawers one by one, thinking that he might have misplaced the important artifacts somehow in his haste to get to school, but he found nothing. He searched everywhere in his room: threw down his bed mattress, went through every inch of his wardrobe, search every nooks of his bedroom, but found nothing. He then went downstairs in a hurry, began searching his kitchen, throwing down random objects left and right trying to find Nasir's bottle and the paper, but he came up once again empty-handed. He searched his car: nothing. He searched his garage: nothing. He went through every rooms of his house one more time, thinking that he might have missed something somewhere, but still, nothing. As he passed in front of his front door, that's when he remembered his weird feeling from earlier and just like that, the truth came hitting him right in the face like a tow-truck. The door had been unlocked when he had came in earlier that evening and when he took a closer look, he saw that the bolt of his front door hadn't just been unlocked, it had been ripped from its seams and thrown down on the floor...  
  
Nasir's bottle and paper were nowhere to be found...someone had broken into his house and stolen the bottle and the paper...someone had taken Nasir away from him.  
  
Suddenly feeling faint, all Agron could do was sit on the marble floor that adorned the front hall to his rented house. Weakly and knowing it would be no used to do so, he still called out in a shaky voice: "N-Nasir? Where are you? Please, come out! Please..." and feeling helpless about what to do, Agron felt a tear come down his cheek and dropping on the floor right in front of him. He might have completely broken down sobbing, if a light in front of him hadn't distracted him from his bottomless thoughts. Raising his head to see where the light was coming from, he winced in pain and shielded his eyes as the white light became brighter and brighter until a shadow appeared and the room slowly darkened back to normal. As Agron adjusted his vision and tried to see what had appeared in the place of the light, he couldn't believe his eyes.   
  
Right there, in front of him... stood the woman who had sold him the green bottle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: we finally learn who this mysterious woman really is, what is Nasir's story and who stole the bottle and the paper. Stay tuned! :D


	8. Nasir's story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's Nasir's story time! And this makes Agron realize something we pretty much all already knew. And who exactly stole Nasir's bottle?

The woman that had been at the flea market was now standing in front of Agron, seemingly coming out of nowhere and looking radically different than the first time that he had met her. When before she had looked as any ordinary woman you could pick out on the street with her casual clothes and casual looks, this time she looked like she was coming from a different place, from a different time. She was wearing a cascading white dress that seemed to shimmer in the pale light of Agron's front hall. She was holding a large staff in her hand, indicating that she was someone of authority and held a lot of power. She looked beautiful, graceful, almost ethereal.

But Agron couldn't concentrate on her beauty, because his mind quickly turned to disbelief and anger. "You...I know you. You're the woman that sold me the bottle at the flea market." Agron said, pointing an accusatory finger at the woman standing in front of him. "But when I came back to show you to my friend, it was like you'd never been there. I knew I wasn't crazy. Who are you? What do you want? Are you the one that took Nasir? WHERE IS HE?" he yelled out loud, getting up from his spot on the floor, ready to launch himself at the intruder if she was the one that had indeed kidnapped Nasir. The woman finally spoke, raising a hand in front of her and that seemed to have a calming effect on Agron, as his anger suddenly died down within himself.  
  
"Please, calm down, Agron. I will answer all of your questions, but one thing at a time, please." she said with a gentle smile.  
  
Perplexed at the effect the woman was having on him, Agron decided to trust the woman anyway. "Alright then, who are you?" he asked at first.  
  
"My name is Chadara and yes, I am the person who sold you the bottle at the flea market." she responded.  
  
"What do you want?" he asked next.   
  
"I'm here to warn you: Nasir has been taken, you must help him." she replied.  
  
"So you knew about what was in the bottle when you sold it to me, huh? How do you know Nasir? Are you one of his old masters?" he asked, once again getting a bit upset.  
  
"Instead of telling you, how about I just show you?" and with that, Chadara stroke the ground with her staff and a blinding light emanated from it, enveloping her and Agron within it.  
  
Images then seemed to flash right before Agron's eyes and he found himself in an unfamiliar setting, it was like a movie was playing just for him and he saw it all:   
  
He saw a young Nasir, living a happy family life with his parents and his sister in what seemed like thousands of years ago, in an impressive-looking place, like a palace from the ancient Arabian times.  
  
He saw Nasir using magic along with his sister, but this time he wasn't tied to any bottles and no one had to make a wish for Nasir to help them. Because that's what Nasir was doing, helping people in need with the help of the magic that ran deep within him without asking anything in return, because that was who he was: a good, kind young man who helped others altruistically.   
  
He saw Nasir looking as old as he was these days, opening presents and laughing with his family and his friends. Chadara was among them, looking like she was now. Someone mentioned how today was his 21st birthday and the day he would finally reach his destiny as heir of the throne and become king. He saw Nasir accepting a package from an old-looking man with a sinister light in his eyes. When Nasir opened his gift, it was revealed to be the golden bracelets that he now adorned on his arms as a genie. He saw the young prince being grateful to the old-man, calling him "uncle" and placing the bracelets around his arms.   
  
He saw the way the old-man looked at Nasir with pure glee and revealing from behind his back an all too-familiar green bottle. He saw how the old-man opened the top of the bottle and a green mist enveloped Nasir and made him scream in agony, forever changing him. He saw the young prince now turned genie being sucked into the bottle like he was getting into a vacuum and the old-man reciting an incantation, making the bottle and Nasir disappear right before the eyes of all the on-lookers. He saw Chadara, looking shocked and furious, having the old-man arrested on the spot.  
  
He then saw Nasir and all of his older masters, one by one, using him either as a slave or as a thing to get to whatever their hearts desired and never thinking about the person that was granting the wishes. Nasir was alone, always alone, with no one to talk to and not allowed to interact with anything or anyone besides his masters because he would raise suspicions if he did so. And it went on for centuries, the young man never having any friends or freedom to do anything he wanted.   
  
He saw the last master before himself, a woman who had wished to turn back the clock on her youth and riches among the which not a lot of people had ever seen. When she had discovered that she had used up all of her wishes, she had been hell-bent on destroying the poor genie who was only doing his job. She was about to break his bottle into tiny little pieces when Chadara, who had spent centuries upon centuries looking for her brother, because yes Chadara was indeed Nasir's younger sister, finally found him and with a flash, made him go back into his bottle and made it disappear from the woman's vile hands. She then spent the next five years keeping him protected and sleeping into his bottle, so that no one would use his powers ever again, until she would find someone worthy of him, someone who needed him just like he would need that someone. And then he saw Chadara at the flea market on that one gloomy morning not so long ago, looking at the strangers passing by when she suddenly saw a pair of young men entering the market and the shortest one of them caught her eye. With the help of her magic, she saw everything she needed to see and know and that was when she deemed Agron to be worthy of Nasir. And as the rest they say, was history.  
  
And he felt it all too: Nasir's happiness, sadness, loneliness, resolve, fear, anger, determination...and it made Agron fall in love with him even more than he already was.   
  
Wait...fall in love?!  
  
As the setting before him came back to the front hall of his house, only one thought resonated into his mind and was sending him reeling. Recognizing the look on Agron's face, Nasir's sister smiled and put her hand gently on his shoulder.   
  
"Now you see what I wanted you to see and realized what you needed to realize." she said in a calming voice.   
  
Tears came rushing down Agron's face like a waterfall, his mind clearer than it had ever been before, all of his confused thoughts and anxieties over the last few days finally explaining themselves. "I...I've fallen in love with him. I'm in love with Nasir. But how is it possible? I've only known him for a few days, a week at the most! People don't fall that in love that quickly." Agron replied, looking up at Chadara from his kneeling position on the floor.   
  
The woman smiled at him fondly and responded: "There are stranger things that have happened in this world, Agron, believe me I know there is. People all over time and space have fallen for one another in a matter of weeks, or days, or even seconds. That's what makes love such a mysterious yet powerful thing, you never know what might happen with it."  
  
Agron looked down at the floor in front of him and not raising his eyes, he asked the one question that had plagued his mind the most, but was most afraid of its answer: "Is...is Nasir in love with me too?"  
  
Chadara chuckled and replied: "I guess there is one thing that I forgot to show you." and with, that, her staff glowed once more and images once again flooded Agron's eyes and mind. He saw himself the night before when he had been at the cemetery and had made his second wish. He was sleeping soundly in his bed and Nasir was sleeping right next to him. It was the look on Nasir's face that took his breath away: he had never seen anyone look so content and so happy in his life.  
  
"You see, Agron," Chadara's voice came out of nowhere, "Nasir was dreaming the same thing as you that night: you were together, dancing the night away, being able to be together like you both wanted but were afraid to be."  
  
"I-I don't understand. How could we both be dreaming the exact same thing?" asked Agron out loud.   
  
The disembodied voice replied: "Well, let's just say I had my hand with that. You see, I picked you Agron because I knew that you would treat Nasir with kindness and respect, the two things that he had been lacking from his former masters all through this time. But the one thing I didn't expect was for you both to fall for one another. But because of how you are and how he sees himself, you both were very afraid and confused about your deepening feelings for one another. So, when I saw you sleeping nest to one another that night, I knew I had to make you both see the truth that you were so afraid to see and only needed a little push to realize. What I didn't count on was the fact that someone would take my brother away before you both had the chance to act on your realized love for one another."

He saw Nasir on the other side of his bedroom door the next morning, catching his breath, his hand on his heart like it was beating wildly but knew it couldn't. He saw Nasir deep in thoughts all through that day like he himself had been and he saw the realization dawn on his face and the smile that appeared on it afterwards was almost blinding. He saw Nasir pacing back and forth on the floor of his bedroom, rehearsing what appeared to be a planned speech about something with an excited look on his face and then he saw him jump when a crashing sound was heard all through the house. And then, nothing.  
  
The vision in front of Agron's eyes ended and with a voice shaken by pure fury, he asked Chadara: "Who took him? Do you know?"  
  
"Yes, it was..." but Chadara couldn't finish her answer, as the lights in the front hall began to flicker and Agron felt a deep pain inside himself, like a part of his heart was being torn away from his body.  
  
Looking confusedly at Chadara, Agron asked her: "What just happened? What the hell was that?"  
  
With a look of utter devastation on her face, Chadara replied: "Someone has read the paper that came with Nasir's bottle. Whoever reads it becomes the master of the genie inside the bottle. I'm sorry Agron, but you are no longer Nasir's master. Someone else now is, someone who I know is going to use my brother for his own nefarious, selfish ways. "  
  
"WHO IS IT?!" roared an agitated Agron, wanting to save Nasir from whomever had stolen the man he was in love with away from him.  
  
"Nasir's new master is...Mr. Marc Crassus."   
  
An new whiff of anger engulfed Agron like a flame. Looking directly at Chadara in the eyes, he implored/demanded with fire in his voice: "Take me to him. Take me to Nasir. Take me to the man that I love!"   
  
With a smile, Chadara struck her staff on the ground and only replied: "Done." and together, they disappeared in a blinding light, leaving an empty hall behind them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is the final confrontation between Agron and Marc Crassus for Nasir. Who will win? Who will lose? And will Agron and Nasir get their chance to be together despite it all? We're in the crunch time here, people! So, stay tuned! :D


	9. A force more powerful than magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final confrontation between Mr. Crassus and Agron for Nasir has arrived! Who will win? Who will lose? And will Agron and Nasir be able to be together when all is said and done?

When the light surrounding him faded, Agron found himself perched up on the top of the staircase that was near the ballroom inside of Mr. Crassus' house. When he heard a booming voice coming from below him, he took a peak downstairs and saw Mr. Crassus in the middle of the ballroom, pacing left and right with a perky smile on his face, as if he was excited by something. When Agron leaned his head further against the rail of the stairs, he saw that Mr. Crassus wasn't alone: with him was his son Tiberius and, with a look of complete misery on his face, was Nasir.   
  
Anger rose once again at the sight of the man he was in love with looking utterly sorrowful before him. He raised his head once again when he saw that Chadara was standing right next to him.  
  
"This is your battle now, Agron, I cannot do more for you, I am terribly sorry. Go. Go save him, he needs you." he heard her say in a whisper and with a flash, she was gone.   
  
Raising himself up from off the ground, Agron began to make his way down the long flight of stairs, trying to make as less noise as he could so that the people below wouldn't notice him. As he went further and further closer to the trio that was standing at the center of the ballroom, he finally could hear what they were talking abut, well at least what Marc Crassus seemed to be talking about, since the other two weren't talking.  
  
"I have plans for you, my boy, big plans!" said Mr. Crassus, looking excitedly at the genie in front of him. "You are going to make me the wealthiest man this town has ever seen and after that, maybe even the whole world! I am going to make people see that Mr. Marc Crassus isn't the type of man that bows down to anyone and if they do not conform to what I tell them to do, then we'll make them pay, won't we my boy?" he finished with a sinister cackle, looking at Nasir for approval.  
  
"Y-yes master." said Nasir timidly, looking down at the ground not wanting to see the eyes of the man that now owned him and could make him do whatever he wanted, no matter who it hurt. As he was closing his eyes, trying to control yet another wave of hopelessness that was coming from inside of him, he heard a hushed "Psst!" coming from the way of the stairs that were just behind him. Seeing that Mr. Crassus was once busy talking to himself and wasn't paying attention to what the genie was doing, he dared to turn his head in the direction of the noise he had just heard. What he saw made his whole being blossom with hope that maybe his fate wouldn't end up being so dire after all. At the corner of the last set of stairs, the one person he had fallen deeply in love with was looking right at him and with the look Agron was giving him, he was as happy to see him as Nasir was happy to see Agron.  
  
With a finger on his lips to tell him to not signal his presence, Agron silently approached the trio and spotted what he was looking for on a table nearby: the piece of paper that had come with Nasir's bottle. If he could reach it and read its incantation, then he would be able to become Nasir's master once again and liberate the genie from Crassus' grasp.   
All the meanwhile, Crassus just kept talking and talking out loud, as if he was a cartoon villain or something, about what he would gain and what he would do with the wishes he had just acquired.   
  
"...ooh, ooh, and maybe a giant boat with gold on it! That would look good with my house by the lake. And of course, I'm going to get cars, after cars, after cars and don't think I didn't notice you over there trying to get what is mine, Agron! Get the hell out of there! Tiberius, go get him!" Crassus said without missing a beat and with a gun pointed a him and a strong gripping hand on his arm, Agron was lead away just when he had reached his goal and had been just inches away from liberating his love from Crassus' clutches.   
  
Holding his hands up in the air and being taken to the center of the ballroom where the other two men were, Agron tried to reason with the older man: "Now Mr. Crassus, I'm not here to cause you any trouble, I'm just here to get Nasir back home with me. So if you would just please let him go, we'll be on our way and we can pretend that none of this has ever happened."  
  
"What? Do you think I'm an idiot or something? Hehe...do you really think I'm going to let the source of my future success and wealth go without saying anything!? If you think for one second I'm going to let you leave this place with one of my things..." Crassus spat out, looking down at Agron as if he was nothing.  
  
"Don't you dare talk about Nasir like that! He's not a thing!" said Agron defiantly. "He has thoughts, he has feelings, he cares for people and I..."  he turned his head towards the genie and gave him a look of uttermost affection "I'm in love with him."  
  
A small smile began to rise on Nasir's lips. "Agron." he whispered to himself, touched that his feelings for his former master were indeed returned.   
  
"Well, well, would you look at that? Isn't this whole thing just romantic? A genie and a master, in love... Please, excuse me while I blow my brains out in complete boredom." said Crassus sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the sentiment being shown before him.   
  
"Please, Mr. Crassus, just let him go. I won't tell anyone I swear, I'll give you any amount of money that you want in exchange, but please, just let Nasir go." Agron implored once again. The gun digging into his back informed him that the answer he would receive would probably be in the negative.  
  
"Well, I'm sorry my boy, but I just can't do that, not after everything I went through to actually find this little treasure right here." Crassus said, looking at Nasir with a little smile.  
  
"You see, after our little meeting the other day between you, me and your buddy Spartacus where I rejected your piss-poor excuse of a project and threw it in the trash like every other project that I see, that very same night, my son right here came to me." he added, pointing to Tiberius. He continued: "He said: "Father! Father! There is this project I really want to talk to you about, I think it's really interesting." now, as a good father, I read through the file that he had just given to me and low and behold, it was the exact same file that I had put in my trash bin that very morning! But, unlike a few hours earlier, I didn't reject it. For some reason, I actually liked the project and wanted to pour my money into it, which on any other circumstances I would never approach with a stick. But I still did it, but a nagging thought went through my mind as the days went on, because in my career I have never once changed my mind about something, so why start now, all of a sudden and for something as stupid as this? And by the time the party came along and you talked about someone suddenly coming to live with you, an exchange student from Syria, I began to grow suspicious.

With the help of some of my contacts, I found out that there hadn't been any exchange student from Syria that was attending your University and so my suspicions began to grow even stronger. I had you followed over the next day and low and behold, I was reported that you were with someone at the cemetery and that this person performed some kind of magic trick and a human being had appeared and disappeared out of thin air in the matter of minutes. So that's when I saw the truth, that this gentleman here wasn't some exchange student that had become your roommate, but something much more powerful, much more valuable, to me. So, after a night spent researching your little buddy's case and knowing what I had to do to get him, I had someone break into your house while I knew that you were gone and well, as they say, the rest is history. And if you think for one moment that I'm going to give Nasir back to you without any kind of resistance, you're wrong, not after everything's that happened." he finished. Crassus then headed over to the table where Nasir's bottle and its paper were laying on.  
  
"Oh, and what was it that you were trying to get just before I caught you red-handed, this little piece of paper right here?" he added, picking up the paper in his hands. "You thought that if you read the ancient incantation on it, you would become Nasir's master once again and get him away from me?" While saying that, he reached inside the pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a small lighter. "Well, let's see you try that when the paper's nothing but ashes!" and with that, right before Nasir and Agron's horrified eyes, he set the paper on fire, destroying all chances Agron had to reclaim Nasir as rightfully his.   
  
Laughing almost maniacally, Crassus picked up the green bottle into his hands. "Hehe, you should see the look on both of your faces! It's almost endearing, if I may say so myself." He approached Agron with menacing steps until he was in front of him. "Well, well, what to do with you now? Since you know a bit too much and I don't want you getting in the way of my plans, I guess I'm going to have to eliminate you...permanently." When Tiberius' gun pressed against his temple, Agron closed his eyes, thinking that this was it, this was the end for him, but Crassus' voice once again rang out in the large room: "Wait! Wait, Tiberius, put the gun down, do not kill him just yet."  
  
"But father..." Tiberius questioned out loud his father's sudden turn-around, but Crassus raised a hand to shut his son up.  
  
"Tut, tut, do what I say and put the gun away." Crassus ordered his son, and Tiberius obeyed his father without a single word. Agron opened his eyes once more, thinking that Crassus had changed his mind and would spare his life, but with the cruel way the older man was looking at him and Nasir, Crassus looked like he had an even sinister plan in mind. With an evil smile, he said: "No, no, you see, I'm not going to let my son have the pleasure of killing you. I've thought of a fate even better and kind of ironic for you. I'm going to let the person you love do it instead!"  
  
With a knowing smile, Nasir turned his head toward Crassus and dared to speak: "I'm sorry master, but my magic cannot let me kill anyone." His hope rose that maybe Crassus wouldn't get his way after all.   
  
Crassus fumed at Nasir's defiant smirk, but then smiled evilly once more. "Well then, if you cannot kill him, I'll just make you hurt him enough that he's going to *wish* that you could kill him! And after all is said done and he'll be left just a shell of his former self, I'll just finish the job myself." he finished with a shrug, as if it was the most mundane thing in the world to him. Nasir's eyes went wide, horrified at the thought of what his new master would have him do to the man that he loved.   
  
He pleaded: "No, please master! Not this! I'll do anything, but not this!"  
  
"I'm afraid my boy that you don't have a choice. As long as you're under my command, you're going to do whatever I want." Crassus said, picking up Nasir's bottle in his hands all the while. "And what I want, well..." he added and closing his eyes, Mr. Marc Crassus made his first wish:  
  
 _I wish for this genie to hurt Agron until he wished he was dead!_   
  
Feeling the bracelets on his arms began to warm up against his skin like they always did whenever someone made a wish and feeling the control of his body leave him, all Nasir could do was watch in horror as his arms, as if they were acting on their own free will, rose up and bolts of lightning came out of his fingers and began to strike Agron, sending him reeling on the cold hard floor, screaming in pure agony. "Agron!" Nasir called out and tried to take back the control of his body, but to no avail. As he much as he tried, he couldn't stop himself and bolts after bolts came out from his raised hands and at Agron, making him scream out in agonizing pain. All the while, Tiberius and his father watched the spectacle in front of them in pure glee.  
  
Feeling like every single cell of his body was on fire after another bolt hit him once again, Agron wished with all of his heart that this would stop, that someone would put an end to his misery and make the pain he was feeling right now just go away. He opened his eyes and exchanged a look of hopelessness with Nasir, thinking that both of their fates had forever been sealed, that he would end up dying by the end of Crassus and that the genie would become the instrument to the older man's rise of power and that there was nothing they could do about it. Curling up in a fetal position and looking at Nasir with pained eyes as he had a moment of relief between two bouts of intense pain, he whispered to Nasir from his position on the floor: "I'm so sorry, Nasir. I'm sorry I couldn't save you."  
  
With the same look of pain on the face of the genie, Nasir whispered back: "And I'm sorry that I got taken."  
  
"And I'm sorry that there isn't anything that I can do to make this all stop." said Agron back at him, pained breaths wracking his body.  
  
Seemingly to be thinking for a moment and with a serious look on his face, Nasir replied: "Well, maybe *I* can make this all stop." He turned his head and looked at the green bottle in Crassus' hands. His soul, his life, his whole being, all were attached to it. If it was destroyed, just like a master before the two that were in this room had tried to do, then so would he be. Realizing what Nasir wanted to do, Agron raised a shaking hand towards the genie and pleaded to him:  
  
"No, please Nasir, you don't have to do this."  
  
Feeling a new charge of electricity come into his being and into his fingers, Nasir turned his head towards his former master and a sad smile formed upon his lips. "It's the only way to put an end to all of this, I'm sorry Agron. I love you." Nasir said and with a renewed determination, he felt himself get back the control of his body and instead of directing the next lighting bolt at Agron, he turned his arm with all of his might towards his master and all the people in the room could only watch as the bolt of lighting discharged itself from Nasir's fingers and struck the bottle from Crassus' fingers, making it explode in hundreds of tiny little pieces and they all fell to the ground, like small stars falling on the Earth.  
  
Shocked and looking at his hands in disbelief that his source of his futures plans had been destroyed, Crassus looked at Agron, who was trying to catch air inside of his lungs once again after feeling the pain he had been feeling go away slowly, in pure anger. "You son of a bitch! I'm going to kill you!" he yelled out and went over to his son and pulled the gun he was holding out of his hands. He pointed the gun at the laying form of Agron and said in a cold voice: "I'm going to teach you to take my things away from me." He was about to pull the trigger when suddenly, the front door of his house busted open and two cops: a man with long black hair and a beard and a woman with dark hair and dark skin entered, pointing their guns at Tiberius and Crassus.   
  
"Police! Put the gun down, I repeat, put the gun down!" the woman screamed out, trying to resonate with the older man. But to no avail, Crassus was determined to take his vengeance on the man he thought had destroyed his chances for even more wealth and glory than he already had.   
  
"I'm not going to put this gun down until that bastard pay for destroying my stuff."  he creid out and with that and to everyone's horror, Crassus pulled on the trigger on the gun...  
  
A beat, then two passed and nothing was happening. No popping sound came from the gun, no bullet came out. Looking at the gun in disbelief, Crassus pulled the trigger again...and again....  
  
There were no bullets in the gun.  
  
"What in the...Tiberius! You idiot! How can you forget to put bullets in the gun?!" he cried out loud, dropping the weapon on the ground and coming over to his son with the intention to punish him for making such a foolish mistake, when the two cops who had witnessed the whole deal had enough and brandished their weapons in the mogul's face, making him stop dead in his tracks.   
  
The bulky-looking male cop pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his pockets and tied  
Crassus' hands behind his back with it, the female cop doing the same to Tiberius.   
  
"Mr. Marc Crassus, you are under arrest for kidnapping, taking of hostages, threats and the use of an unregistered firearm. You have the right to remain silent, anything you might say will be used against you in court and you have the rights to an attorney. Come with me please." the male cop said, taking the pair of criminals with him and the woman.   
  
As they were getting out of the house and the awaiting cop car, Crassus cried out: "But you don't understand! He took my genie away from me! I was about to be the most famous man in the country and the richest man in the world and that bastard stole it all from me!"   
  
The two cops looked at one another as if the man in their custody was crazy and while putting Crassus and Tiberius in the backseat of his car, Agent Crixus sarcastically said out loud: "Right, you had a genie. And I've got a unicorn in my backyard." and with that, Crixus drove away with the mogul and his son handcuffed in the backseat of his police car, like the criminals that they really were.   
  
The female cop went once again inside the abandoned house to survey the scene. When she saw what had been left behind, with a soft smile she reached for her radio and called out: "Yeah Dispatch, this is Agent Naevia, we've got two people on the scene who seem to be a bit shaken but fine otherwise, we're going to need some medical help just in case and I'll be taking them to the station to collect their witness accounts a little bit later. Over."  And with that, she went to her own police car to file a report about everything that had just happened.  
  
 *********************  
  
While this was going on outside, Agron was trying to catch his breath as best as he could, shaking the last tremors of pain from his body. Putting his head on his forehead trying to stop the dizziness in his mind, a noise that sounded like a pained cry made him raise his head from up the ground and gasp out loud.  
  
Before him, on top of the tiny pieces that used to constitute his bottle, laid a whimpering Nasir. He was dragging shallow breath after shallow breath like he was on his last moments and his whole being was now transparent, like he had become a ghost.  
  
"Nasir!" Agron cried out and, using as much strength as he could muster, he crawled to the fading body of the former genie, looking at him with tearful eyes.   
  
Nasir coughed, opened his eyes and seeing that Agron was kneeling right above him, gave his former master a weak smile. "Agron...you're safe... thank... god." he said in a wavering voice.  
  
"Nasir, what the hell did you do that for? You knew what it would do to you and you did it anyways!?" Agron cried out, feeling a mixture of grief and anger rise from inside of him.  
  
"I knew... it was the only way...to-to save you...would rather be gone than watch you die because of...me... Wanted to stop him...from using me...for god knows what... " Nasir said with his voice getting weaker and weaker by the minute. He turned his head and looked at the golden bracelets that adorned his arms, now turned to rust without the source of their powers. "Well...would you look at that...I d-don't have to serve anybody anymore." he added, raising his head to look at Agron once again.  
  
The taller man implored: "But you could have stayed with me! How am I supposed to survive without you?"   
  
Nasir felt tears coming into his own eyes: "I'm...I'm sorry Agron...you will be just f-fine without me, you-you'll see."   
  
"No! No! I'm not going to be fine without you! I need you!" Agron cried out and with a weaker voice, he whispered sadly: "I love you."  
  
Tears began to fall down Nasir's cheeks at Agron's words. "I...I love you too, Agron. I...love you so...much." he said weakly, reaching out to try to touch the older man, but his hand passed through Agron's face and he laid it on the floor once again, too tired to do anything else. Slowly, as if wind was passing through the house, Nasir's body began to extinguish itself away, like a puff of smoke evaporating in the air.   
  
Seeing that the man he loved was leaving him, Agron sobbed out: "Please Nasir, don't go! Stay with me, please!"   
  
"It's...alright...my love....it's going to be okay...I promise...." Nasir coughed out. "I wasn't destined to be with you after all...it seems..." he added, not feeling his legs anymore now than they had disappeared.  
  
"But you were, remember? The dream? I was with you, we danced, we laughed, we were together, we were dreaming the exact same thing!" Agron cried, tears streaming down his cheeks as he saw that Nasir's evaporating body was now taking away his hands and his waist.  
  
"We...we were? Oh, that's...that's good....I want you...to-to know...I meant every word I said to y-you there...would...would have wished...to-to be with you....if I had the chance..." Nasir wheezed out and not feeling anything below his neck anymore and sensing his ending approaching, he turned his head one more time and with a weak smile, he added: "I guess we'll...never know...what your final...wish....was going...to...be..." and with that, the former genie closed his eyes for the final time and the rest of his evaporated himself away into the wind, leaving behind only broken bottle pieces and a broken Agron, who was feeling himself wrap up in grief.

If he had thought that losing Duro had been hard, this was a thousand times worse, he felt like someone had ripped his heart right from the inside of his chest and he was now just a mix of skin and bones, not feeling anything but pure heartache and sorrow. Tears dropped from his cheeks like two rivers, continuing non-stop. They hit what remained of the home that had contained Nasir all this time and with a shaking hand, Agron reached out and touched the pile of glass mournfully.   
  
"I would have...I would have wished..." he croaked out, too sad to form words.   
  
_I would have wished for you to become human, so that you could be with me._   
  
He said out loud, retreating his hand and covering his face with it, a new wave of sorrow hitting him.  
  
Suddenly, the lights around him began to flicker on and off on their own. Confused about what was happening, Agron raised his head to look around him and was stunned at the spectacle before him.   
  
A green mist had risen from the ground and was now above the broken pieces of glass that were laying on the floor. As if it had a mind of its own, the mist suddenly reached down and picked up the pieces and began swirling them up in the air, mixing itself up with them. A bit scared about what was occurring before him, Agron took a step back, stood up and looked on in awe as the pieces of the bottle transformed themselves and created a form right before Agron's eyes. The green mist got into it too, giving the form life. And soon all of the chaos ended and in front of Agron stood a gasping Nasir, only wearing his leathers pants and nothing else, no bracelets to restrain him and no bottles to be found too, clutching at his chest as if he was searching for a heartbeat and smiling when he found one.   
  
"N-Nasir?" said a shaken Agron, not quite believing what he had just witnessed.   
  
The man before him raised his head at last and with a hopeful smile and slow steps, he walked over to Agron and with a shaking hand, felt overwhelming joy as he at last could touch the man that he loved and was loving him in return. "Agron!" Nasir said out loud, not quite believing that he was alive, that he was human, that he was free.  
  
Agron leant into Nasir's warm touch and gasped as he reached out and realize that he could grasp the other man's hand within his own. With a watery smile and reaching arms, Agron pulled the now human Nasir into his embrace, marveling at how whole and warm everything about the man that he loved felt. They both cried tears of joy at being reunited at last after everything that they had endured and at the chance that they had been given to love one another freely, without restraints whatsoever.   
  
"Oh Nasir, oh my love, I thought you were gone for good." Agron emotionally whispered into the other man's hair. Cupping the new human's head between his two large hands for the first time, Agron closed his eyes and tenderly kissed Nasir on the forehead.  
  
The new human reached out and dropped a soft kiss of his own on the inside of Agron's wrist as the other man leaned his forehead against his own, opening his eyes and marveling at the closeness they were sharing. "I thought I was gone too. But I'm here now and I'm with you. I have no idea what happened." Nasir whispered, smiling and looking at Agron in the eyes.   
  
_"You are here because of Agron's final wish."_  
  
Nasir could not believe his ears at the voice that was echoing in the air. "Chadara?" he asked out loud, trying to find where the voice was coming from and couldn't believe his eyes when after all this time, he finally saw his sister standing in front of him with a gentle smile on her face. Looking at Agron and back at the apparition before him, Nasir couldn't help himself and launched his body into Chadara's waiting arms, embracing her with all of his might and sobbing into her hair.  
  
"Chadara! Oh god, Chadara! I've missed you so much little sister!" he cried out, kissing her on the cheek and hugging her once more.  
  
"And I missed you too, big brother." she emotionally replied, stepping back but still holding her brother's hands.  
  
"But...I don't understand: Agron wasn't supposed to be able to make wishes since he wasn't my master anymore, Crassus destroyed the incantation, I destroyed my bottle, so basically I destroyed myself. I'm supposed to be gone. How was Agron able to make his wish even after all of that?" asked Nasir, confused at how all of this had been possible and by the look Agron was giving his sister, he was confused too.   
  
With a smile and a calming hand, Chadara explained: "There are powers on this Earth more powerful than your magic ever was, Nasir, believe it or not. You sacrificed yourself for Agron and Agron wanted to sacrifice his last wish for you. That's what love does, Nasir, sometimes it makes us sacrifice our own happiness or our very life so that the person that we love can survive and be happy in return. The demonstration of this love you two did made this miracle happen, made Agron able to get his final wish and for you to be reborn again. Because that is what you are, reborn. No more wish granting, no more bottles, but also no more magic. You will live a mortal life here in this time and place like any normal human would do. Are you alright with that?"  
  
Smiling and reaching over to take Agron's hand and entwining it with his own, Nasir reassured his sister: "I'll be alright, I promise. I would rather live a mortal life here with no magic whatsoever with the people that I have met and the man that I love than live an immortal one with magical powers but with no life of my own."  
  
Chadara smiled at the pair and said: "Well, alright, I do hope you live a long and happy life together and know that I will be watching the two of you." With a wink she added: "So I'm warning you, don't mess this up."   
  
Grinning back at her and squeezing Nasir's hand, Agron replied: "Don't worry, we won't." Nasir nodded along with him, smiling widely too.  
  
"And Nasir," reaching out, Chadara pulled her big brother in her arms one more time and whispered softly in his ear: "I love you no matter what, you understand me?"   
  
"Yeah, I know, and I love you too Chadara and at least I did get a chance to say goodbye to you after all." he replied, stepping away from his sister's embrace and returning into his love's strong arms. Together, they watched as Chadara struck her giant staff into the ground and into a flash disappeared into the air, leaving the two alone one more time. They both looked at one another and knew exactly what was left to be done.  
  
Suddenly, the front door of the house opened and a gasping Spartacus entered the room in a haste and, spotting his two friends, ran over to them.  
  
"Oh my god, you guys! What the hell happened?! Some girl came knocking at my door in the middle of the night saying that Mr. Crassus had kidnapped Nasir and had also gotten you Agron and so I called the police but they wouldn't let me in after Marc was arrested and why does it look like a hurricane passed through here and are you guys going to tell me anything?! Guys? Guys?? Are you even listening to me??" he stammered out lout, but his questions and demands for answers were left to deaf ears because Agron was too busy enjoying the feeling of having Nasir into his arms while the other man was rejoicing at actually being able to run his fingers into Agron's spiky hair, just like he had always wanted to do. All of the while kissing the hell out of each other.   
  
Spartacus looked at the snogging pair and asked sarcastically:  
  
"So... a "friend" from the University, huh?"  
  
  
   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it! I finished it! Woohoo! Well, not entirely actually. I do have a sort-of epilogue that I will begin to write very shortly, but I'm not putting it as a chapter in this story since I didn't want to raise the age warning for the entire thing for one single chapter. So this one will be a thing on its own, I'm afraid. And oh yeah, things are going to get hot in here, this I can guarantee! ;D
> 
> Anyways, thanks a lot to everybody who left kudos and comments for this story, I'll forever be grateful. Thank you. :)

**Author's Note:**

> What do you think so far? Please leave me a review/kudos and tell me what you thought. Thanks! :)


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